The Last of Us II
by HPVale
Summary: "It's been more than a week since she got out of that attic. The cold, fresh air brushing on her face felt…amazing. She closed her eyes for a second trying to enjoy the feeling but opened them almost immediately. 'Stay vigilant' she thought. 'No time for this…'" A new character. A new journey. A journey that has nothing to do with the Last of Us, but at the same time EVERYTHING...
1. WHAT IS LEFT

"Yeah?" she answered the phone in a boring voice.

"Hey! Where are you?"

"It's the Longhorns vs Wranglers mum!" she said with disbelief. "I'm heading to the match. Dad knows."

"Right, right, I forgot." her mum replied. "So…how was your day?" she voiced happily.

"Mum the match is about to start. What do you want?"

"Just checking up on my daughter. I haven't seen you all day!"

"Yeah…you'll see me tonight." she expressed boringly.

"I'm too tired, you'll probably find me dead sleeping on the couch!"

"Ok, tomorrow then!" she really did not want to talk.

"Alright, alright, just one thing. On your way back, buy antifever pills, your dad feels sick. He must have caught something in the office, he came exhausted and fell into bed still with his-"

"Okay mum okay, got it. Antifever pills."

"Huh…alright. You be careful on your way back, it's a long way from the city." she said with a worried voice.

"I know I…"she restraint herself. "I will. Night mum."

"Huh!"

Thank god! _Peace_ she thought. She continued through the field where she parked her car, a bit further from the stadium. It was a nice warm night. The huge stadium being on the edge of the city, seemed beautiful with the starry sky as a background. The sound from the cheers was getting louder.

...

"That was out! That was…damn!" some man next to her was shouting. "You saw that right?" he turned to her and asked.

"Ah…" she began. She did not know him. "Yeah…"

"Dammit…now what the hell?" he said in exasperation and surprise.

She looked to where he was looking. A bunch of people were fighting in the far away stands.

"People are ready to turn on each other for their teams" the man said.

"And ruin the match. Huh…" she exclaimed.

"I know how these things go" he expressed sitting down, feeling his legs.

She did not want to sit down. She turned and headed through the exit. Down the stairs and there it was. Soda machine.

_So thirsty_. She put money in it and got a soda.

"Might as well head in there too!" she said a bit sarcastically and entered the ladies bathroom. She put the soda on the sink and turned it to wash her hands. Then she saw something from the window.

"Military?"

_Why would the military come to a match?_ she thought. _With masks?_ It can't be because of the fight. That's not their job.

Noises in the corridors. She opened the door a bit and saw the military jogging through it.

"_No one_ leaves." a soldier was saying in a quiet voice to another one.

"Shit!" she said a bit scared. She closed the door entirely. _What's going on?_ she thought. _They aren't letting us leave?_ She immediately felt like she did not want to stay here any longer. If there was some sort of trouble, she wouldn't be a part of it. They didn't see her, she could find a way to leave. But maybe she should find out what was going on? _Yeah as if the military likes to share information_. She was thinking about this…

"Damn…I'm getting out of here" she decided seriously. _I want nothing to do with this_ she thought. _The bathroom window! Yeah great idea, fall to my death!_

Then she heard a conversation from the corridors.

"Sir I need you to head back in. There's a…situation here" a soldier was bossing a man around.

What was going on? They military wasn't telling them that they would not let them leave.

"Oh fuck it." She looked out of the window. There was a way down. She exhaled and climbed through the window, holding onto the upper ledge with her feet on a lower ledge. Carefully she walked on it until she reached a good spot to jump from. Two meter drop, onto a small roof of the lower level. _I can do this_ she thought.

"Hey you!" A soldier saw her through the window. "Stop!"

She exchanged a look with him and then looked down, jumping. There was another roof. Another drop. Thank god for complicated building designs. She jumped not even hesitating.

"One more" she breathed. She jumped on the ground. That's it. She was out. But that soldier saw her. _No time to linger_ she thought. They're gonna come after me.

She began jogging to the field she parked her car.

"Hey! There's a girl over there!" a soldier shouted from afar. She looked back. A short glimpse showed her the military was in the parking lot, the entrances, in the stadium-everywhere. And they were gonna come after her too.

"Stop right there!"

Now she got really scared. _I didn't do anything _she thought and started running. She was fast and out of reach. She could easily outrun them…that's if they didn't start shooting.

She reached the field. She knew someone was after her but no time to turn around. She found her car, jumped into it and floored it, heading home.

"Shit…shit" she said in disbelief and fear.

_Why did I do that? Am I in trouble?_ she thought. She needed to go home, tell her dad and mum.

_Dad!_ she thought

"Damn, the medicine!"

There was a small town up ahead she could buy some.

Usually these roads at night aren't occupant. Roads heading out of the city to the outskirts and small towns, are used mostly by people who live out there. But tonight there were a lot of cars. A police car passed her and she heard the sound of an ambulance somewhere nearby.

"What the fuck is going on tonight?" she said a bit scared and a bit angry.

She turned her car into the town she was headed to, and she immediately regretted it. People running in the streets, screams were heard from every direction, cars getting destroyed and there was fire in some of the buildings-panic everywhere.

"Ah!" she screamed.

Someone was pounding at her car window. Someone…ill.

"Stop!" she shouted. "I-"

Another one, looking similarly ill, appeared in the other window. She floored it. Fear was rushing through her, but she controlled it, she could get out of here, she was in a car-

BAM! A car coming from the right hit hers forcing her to turn the wheel into an entrance of an apartment building.

She felt dizzy…and hurt. Her chest hurt from the belt. She breathed fast and hard. She pulled the seat belt off. The car, crashed through the building, blocking the exit. Her door opened to the stairs that led up.

THUMP! Another…ill person was pounding the window's car from the other side. She got out, trembling, not thinking. She needed to go home, but how? They could not reach her at least. They...whoever _they_ are…

She decided to head upstairs it was the only option. Tenants were running in the first floor corridor. There was someone attacking a man outside his room and someone else that looked like he was running towards-

"Shit!" she screamed.

She got into the first apartment door she saw and closed the door right before that…person started hitting the door. She turned around and got out into the porch. She started climbing through every apartment porch heading…somewhere. How was she going home?

She was about to climb to the last porch when one of those crazy men saw her and ran at her. Without thinking she grabbed the broom and hit him with it. It did nothing to him, just staggered him back. She used those precious milliseconds to jump into the next porch, went through the last apartment and into the corridor again. She ran to the 'only for emergencies' exit door, opened it and ran down the stairs to the street. If it was bad in the apartment, it was worse out here.

"Oh my god, oh my…" she sobbed frightened. It was awful, people were attacking people, everybody just…running. She hurried behind a building and started running behind it through the backyards. There was less commotion meaning less danger. She ran a lot but at some point she reached a dead end. Without a choice, she got into the door of the building in front of her. It was the backroom of a store. There was no one inside. She ducked down, stayed for a few seconds like that, catching her breath. She felt like the world was swirling.

_I need to keep going, I need to go home_ she thought.

She got up and carefully walked through the store. The clerk was dead. His face was…chewed.

She felt disgusted as fear run through her spine. She looked at his hand-he had a gun! She went behind the counter where he was and reached for it.

_What am I doing?_ she thought.

Then a sudden noise came from one of the store's corridors. It was one of those, crazy running men. She turned to the exit of the store right when another two were coming through it. She was trapped behind the counter with three of them coming at her from both sides.

She raised the gun and shot the one from the corridor. He fell down. The other two were right behind her. She ran over to the corridor where the dead one came through and turned around while hitting the wall with her back. She shot the gun twice killing another one of them. But the other one jumped at her.

"Aahh!"

She struggled holding him at arm's length while he was trying to bite her face off. With the gun still in her hand, she pointed it to his head and shot.

Blood splattered her face and she fell down her ears ringing. She couldn't hear a thing and the world seemed to melt around her.

She was panicked, shocked and scared.

_I killed them_ she thought. _I killed…_

But she didn't feel sorry, she didn't care. She was just shocked. _They attacked me…_ Her insides felt like crying but she controlled her emotions. The screaming and shouts from outside kept her grounded in reality. She got up, staggering, placing both hands on the stand of some products. She looked up and turned around, ready to go. She walked through the corridor to the counter. She started searching beneath the counter for maybe more bullets but there were none.

"Huh..." she said in exhaustion and disappointment.

She looked up. There was medicine on the stand behind the counter. She saw some antifever pills and grabbed them without thinking, putting them into her hoody's pocket.

She peeked out of the store's door, on her left was chaos. On the right an empty road at the far end, leading away from this chaos. If she could find a sign it should be easy going back home. _I hope_ she thought.

She stayed for a second thinking. Then she stopped thinking.

She got out and ran towards that empty road. People around her crying and screaming, some getting attacked. Some running for their lives just like her. There weren't as many on this end of the street though. She reached the road, luckily, and continued running into the dark.

After a bit she found a sign. She wasn't that far. Just a few miles to go. She looked around. There were a couple of abandoned cars on the road a bit back from where she came from.

_It wouldn't hurt, if I borrowed one…right? In all of this…_

She ran back and got into one of them. She looked through the rearview mirror ready to back up and saw a baby car seat. She froze. She bowed her head thinking this was someone's car, and they had a…and they're probably…this was getting really painful, so fast…

Exhaling she backed up and drove towards home.

Nothing stopped her on the way, no screaming, no running, only a few cars could be heard from afar. Outside of the town and outside of the city it was always more quite.

She finally reached her neighborhood. It was exceptionally quiet. And dark. The lights were off. Electricity was cut off. An awful feeling sank into her. She didn't think of this before, she didn't believe she would find anything bad out here…thought here was safe…

She stopped the car outside her house and opened the door. She was glued to the seat but she wanted to move. She got up, her feet numb and walked to her home's entrance door.

She knew though. The whole place was too quiet. She was sweating from fear, her heart beating like drums inside of her. She hoped for the least-that they got out. _They had to_.

She opened the door. The house was in a mess. There was blood. At the kitchen at the far right end. There was…blood.

She couldn't think. She walked to it mindlessly.

And then she fell down. One hand holding onto the kitchen's counter the other reaching her-

"Mum" she whispered. "Mum…"

Her mum was...She touched her face, turning it towards her and choked. It was bitten. She felt like throwing up, she couldn't look at her. She looked up, away from her mother's body. Her hands grabbed her t-shirt holding onto it like dear life.

"Mum…mum..." she was growling." Please…"

She sat there crying, choking on her very own breath, holding onto her mother's lifeless body. She leaned onto the wall with her back, her eyes looking ahead, blindly. She didn't know how long she sat there. Could have been seconds, or hours. She regained some focus and saw blood trails in the house leading outside the door to the backyard. There was fear and there was finding out who was…if it was coming from inside the house then…

She felt empty. Like a lifeless shell she followed it, through the backyard of her house to the backyard of the neighbor's house. There was no more blood. But ahead was a broken glass door…with blood on it. She was hesitant, but she stepped through it. There was a desk on the right with a computer and on the left-

"Aagh" she exclaimed in pain.

It was her…

"Dad" she breathed.

"Dad, no…no dad?" she fell on her knees and looked at her father. He looked sick. Like those people on the roads. She felt a bit afraid that he might…but then she saw the gunshot wound. He was shot.

"Dad…no please, not you-"

"Dad!" she screamed in anger and pain and started crying…

It was a long time before she realized-

"Liz!" she whispered.

She stood up, nearly falling down and ran back to her house.

She was breathing heavily. "Liz?" she shouted. There was no one downstairs.

"LIZ? Please, god please-" she said running upstairs to her sister's room.

"Ugh!" she opened the door. There was no one.

"LIZ?" she screamed. She ran to the other doors, rushing through them, but nothing. Her sister was nowhere to be found. She ran back into her room.

_No blood_ she thought. _Maybe…maybe she…_

She backed up into the radiator, and slid down. It was quiet. She could only hear insects buzzing from the window behind her. She wasn't thinking. She just cried silently, her tears falling down and then more of them and more, until she started shaking, her face into her hands, crying like she never cried before.

It was only a few minutes until she heard a loud explosion from far far away. She stood up, almost immediately and mindlessly as if it was something important, clutching the window and the radiator, she looked outside. The window looked towards the city. A beautiful, in other circumstances, scenery. The loud noise must have been a bomb. It came from…the stadium. There was smoke, there was fire and then another explosion.

She stood there looking hopelessly, not believing that this view once beautiful, peaceful and calming, has now become a lost moment of the past.


	2. THE QUARANTINE ZONE

2 YEARS LATER

The siren went off. That only meant one thing…breakfast.

She was still in 'sleep mode'. She was dreaming of her grandma's village and how she used to go there every summer, play with the frogs, soak her feet in the river, enjoy the peaceful, lonely moments and healing sun. That was when she was still a kid. And that was many years ago, and too far away. The thump by her bed brought her back to reality. There are no frogs to play with in reality, and no peaceful moments. She felt sleepy and her whole body was aching.

"Come on" a female voice said. "Unless you wanna wait in line again."

She was breathing deeply. She didn't want to open her eyes. Reality was too ugly.

"Emily?"

"I'm coming, just go" she growled. She heard the girl leave. But got up immediately anyway. She sat at the end of her bed. The other girls got out of bed too and were heading for breakfast. Her bed was in the corner of the camp. The darkness made her feel bad so she just got up and hurried through the door.

Fresh air…if you can call it that way. At least it doesn't smell bad…

She looked at the entrance of the zone. For some reason looking at it made her stop walking. She was looking at it differently for the first time. As if now it held something good beyond it. It made her feel safe. Hmph _safe_…

She continued walking and reached the nearly blown entrance of a big building that was once a hotel and pushed her way through. She really hated crowds. Everybody that lived in the quarantine zone was coming for breakfast.

_Where the hell is Maggie?_ she thought.

She got into the line and crossed her arms waiting.

"Miss? Excuse me, miss?

"What?"

Suddenly she was at the beginning of the line. She didn't notice how fast time went by.

"Yeah, sorry" she said grabbing her plate.

She cracked her neck to look for a seat and found one in the corner. She didn't know where Maggie was, but she'd see her later.

She started eating, that dream still at the back of her mind. She hasn't had a good dream for a long time. It felt…_nice_.

"Hey!" Maggie said, sitting down opposite of her. "What's up?" she added.

"Hey Eric." Emily said. Eric was Maggie's twin brother.

Maggie kept looking at her.

"I just needed a moment."

"You never had a moment" Maggie said waving her fork.

"I never had a good dream."

"That's so lucky of you." Eric said. "No one has, for a long time."

"Get over it" Maggie said to Emily.

"Yes sir" she said with a deep voice.

"So…how's your food today?" said Eric sarcastically.

"Splendid" replied Maggie. She cleared her throat and said in a whisper leaning over the table. "Did you hear about that resistance group?"

Emily looked at her.

"It's called the Fireflies. Long story short, they are looking for a cure and are anti-military. They want to overthrow the quarantine zones, think it is a 'tyranny' system."

"Isn't it?" Maggie's brother said. "Hmm Fireflies?"

"A light in the dark." said Emily smartly.

"Yeah something like that." said Maggie. "Well this 'tyranny' is keeping us alive." she said turning to her brother. "That should be good enough until they do something about the whole thing."

"They who?" Eric spat. "Everybody's dead-"

"You're exaggerating-" Maggie began.

"No I'm not. When was the last time we heard anything about a cure? Anything about the government, or doctors or I don't know who, who is supposed to be responsible for sorting this out? The last time we did, the vaccine didn't work…everything's fucked. At least they are trying for something and _at least,_ they are free from this place."

"You don't even know who _they_ are." Maggie spat. "And what do you mean free? It's not as if-"

"I don't like being told what to do…following rules, curfew…" he looked thoughtful for a moment. "Hey uh…how do we find out more about them? Maybe we can join them?"

"Dammit Eric shh! What the-" she was looking around. "You think you won't have any _rules_ outside the zone? How will you live?...they're anti-military, you really want to go against the people who keep you alive?

"For how long? Hmm? Our camp isn't strong enough."

Maggie looked at him, her eyes squinted. Then she turned to Emily. There was a moment's silence.

"I have to side with Eric here."

"Huh!" Maggie exclaimed.

"How about we find out more about them? Maybe we can help." Eric said.

"Did you have the same dream Emily had, because you two are out of it!"

"Maggie" Emily said in a quiet calm voice, "you just said that you are waiting for the whole thing to be sorted out. "What if the Fireflies are trying to do that? Maybe we can help, instead of just sitting here."

"Not everybody is a biologist like you."

"That's not-what are they going to do with a half-qualified biologist?"

"The point is" Maggie interrupted, "what can we do? How do we even find them? Who says they're not worse? What, we just jump the walls and march to our death?"

There was silence from all three of them. Eric seemed to be in deep thoughts. Emily knew that he wanted to do something. He wasn't the type to just sit the thing out. And Maggie…Maggie was safe. That's all she cared. Being strong enough through all of this and being safe. But maybe the Fireflies _was_ a good chance for them, for something better. Emily thought of her dream. Maybe it didn't have to be a dream? _Don't be stupid_, she thought. _Get a grip of yourself…_

They kept eating silently. It seemed like everybody wanted to say something but they didn't.

BOOM!

"What the-" Eric yelled.

An explosion was heard from outside. Everybody rose up panicked. Then gunshots could be heard. The military was shooting at someone outside the walls, and at people _inside_. Suddenly everything turned to chaos. Everybody started running towards the exits, pushing each other. Maggie and Eric were about to start running too, when Emily grabbed them.

"No!" she shouted over the noise grabbing Maggie's arm. "Through the kitchen."

They rushed the other way, pushing their way through and reached the kitchen easily.

"There's a back door, come on!" she said.

Eric reached it. "Shit, it's locked!"

"Let's break it-"

"Emily what the hell, we don't know where-" Maggie started.

"Just do it!" she shouted.

Eric started kicking and the girls grabbed a knife. In a moment the door broke open and they were in.

"Run, upstairs!" Emily shouted. They ran through the corridor and up the stairs. First floor, second floor, third, fourth.

"Okay, okay hold on" Emily said clutching her waist and breathing fast. The others were breathless as well. "Look" she pointed at the window.

They could see the entire zone from up here, and what was going on.

"They're shooting the military" Eric said breathlessly.

"That's the Fireflies." said Maggie.

Eric turned to her

"That's their symbol" she nodded towards the flag on one of their trucks.

"Damn" Eric exclaimed.

"Yeah that's the people you want to join."

"They aren't shooting at us, they're shooting at the military!"

"Huh!" exclaimed Maggie in disbelief. Then she turned to Emily. "How did you know about this?"

"I didn't. There was always a guard at that door, I could see him from breakfast. I figured this led somewhere."

Another explosion.

"My god!" Maggie whispered. "They blew the fucking wall!"

That wasn't good. Actually that was really bad. They just stood there watching, all three of them. They knew what that meant. It wasn't safe anymore.

"Head down now! We need all hands at the wall." a shout was heard from afar.

"There's military in the fucking-shit come on!" Eric shouted. "In the rooms!"

They ran through the fourth floor corridor and jumped into the first door that they found unlocked.

"Shh, shh, get down" Eric whispered.

They crouched at the wall behind the door they just entered.

"What the hell was that?" a soldier shouted.

"One of our guys was shot while trying to launch a rocket at their truck and it hit the wall!"

"Goddamn!"

The soldiers passed, making everything quiet except from the gunshots outside. The three of them looked at each other.

"What do we do?" Eric asked.

"Do you want to stay here, wait it out?" Maggie suggested.

"The wall is breached, that means infected-"

"No it doesn't mean that-"

"It isn't safe here-"

"Actually it's much safer than out there Eric" Emily pointed out.

Eric was thinking. "Maybe we could help?"

"_Who?"_ Maggie said.

There was silence for a few seconds.

"Okay, lets wait a while" Eric agreed. They pushed a desk in front of the door and made it safer. He leaned on the wall his arms crossed, and Maggie sat on the floor. Emily went to the window.

"What I don't get, is how were there Fireflies _inside_ of the walls?" Maggie asked.

"Someone betrayed us" Eric said. "That's all I can think of."

There were sounds of footsteps outside their room. Some other people found that kitchen backdoor too it seems.

"They're not coming here" Emily said.

The others nodded in agreement.

...

"I can't stand doing nothing." Eric expressed after a while.

"There is nothing we can do" Emily said.

She looked out of the window. She did wish there was something she could do, but knew that there isn't. She closed her eyes. That dream seemed so long ago…maybe because it was. There was no time for these kind of thoughts. If she wanted to live, she should focus on now and what's real. She opened her eyes.

"Infected" she said, her voice a bit heavy.

Maggie ran over to the window, looked outside and bowed her head, shaking it. "Fuck…" She looked at both of them. "We gotta get out of here."

"Where?" said Eric seriously.

Maggie thought for a minute and said "You know that other quarantine zone? The one north of here. We all heard about it."

"Yeah but we don't know where it is."

"What do we know where anything is?" Maggie replied.

"I'm in" Emily said hastily. "At least we have a place to head to. We just gotta find it" she said walking to the door, pushing away the desk. "There is a map, uh, a tourist map, down at the reception, I mean I think- there always is. We get one, maybe it can guide us just a bit."

"I don't like going down. There's infected they could be coming this way." Eric said worried.

"We are on the fourth floor anyway, how are we supposed to get down?"

"There's emergency stairs on each floor we can get down from them." he answered.

"Eric's right Emily."

"Do either of you know where to go?" she looked at them. "At least we can have some guidance."

"What pin points of cafes?" Eric said sarcastically.

"I'll go down by myself" Emily said through gritted teeth, "Wait-" she said angrily at Maggie who was about to interrupt. "I'll be fast. Grab one and come back upstairs. Nothing to worry about."

"I'm not letting you-it's not worth the risk Emily-" Maggie started.

"I'll be back before you know it." she said hastily and determinedly, opening the door slightly. She peeked through it. No one. It was quiet.

"See? Nothing to worry about…I'll be fast"

She looked at them and got out. Slowly and silently she reached the stairs and started going down. There was no disturbance, that was good.

_Relax_, she thought, _relax_. _No infected could come here so fast_. She reached the bottom. Straight ahead was the corridor leading to the backdoor of the kitchen. On the right was the reception. She crouched and headed to it.

"Ah!" she exclaimed. There was a sound of running footsteps from behind her. Someone just came running from the kitchen door. And he wasn't alone.

There were Runners-chasing him.

"Shit!" Emily yelled.

She rose running towards the reception, that man and Runners behind her. She burst through a door on the left, into a bar and jumped over the counter. She hid behind it, breathing fast and panicky. The man follow her in, but rushed to some other door of the bar. She heard the Runners run into the bar, and out of the door too. She sat there for a second and leaned over the counter on the right to see if they were gone.

"Huh" she breathed. One of the runners stayed into the bar. He didn't see her though. Maybe she could sneak past him…or run?

She flinched. It was making that horrible sound they usually make, enough to scare anyone to death.

_Keep your focus_ she thought. But how could she, when her heart was ready to jump out of her chest.

She peeked again. The Runner had his back turned to her. She stared at him for a minute. He didn't do anything else. She closed her fist, determined, and started sneaking back out the way she came from. She wasn't getting the map. It was too dangerous now. The Runner didn't see her. She continued back towards the stairs walking slowly. She turned left to climb the stairs when she heard that horrible sound at the corridor leading to the kitchen. It was two Runners and they saw her.

"Fuck!"

She started running up the stairs to the fourth floor. She could hear them behind her. Fear run over her and her legs were getting tired from running up the stairs. But she couldn't stop. She reached the fourth floor and decided to shout.

"RUNNERS!"

Before she even got to the room Maggie and Eric were, they busted out, saw her and started running too. That emergency exit was right ahead of them. They reached it, pushed it open and descended the stairs as fast as they could. The stairs led to the other side of the hotel, and that was out of the quarantine zone.

"Over here!" Maggie shouted. "North we need to go north!"

They were running in the street for a whole minute, not looking back when Eric shouted. "Up the stairs, to the train station above!" The girls followed him. They ran with the speed of light up the stairs and ended up on the platform.

"Okay stop, stop" Emily said with as much breath as she could muster. She turned around and looked down on the streets. "I think we're safe."

Eric jumped down to the train rails and sat down on them breathing heavily. The girls joined him too. Maggie approached him from behind and put her hands on his shoulders holding onto him.

She looked at Emily for a few seconds. "Are you okay?"

"I'm good" she said with a harsh voice wiping sweat from her forehead. She put her head in both hands trying to control her breathing. "Are you?" she asked.

"We're fine" Maggie replied.

"I didn't get the map" Emily started. "I…I'm sorry. I should have listened."

"It's okay. We're okay." Eric said.

They sat there for a few minutes not talking to each other until Maggie spoke.

"We should move. We can't stay here, we have to find the zone before it gets dark."

"Agreed" Eric said getting up. He looked at the train tracks they were on.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" he asked.

"Yes we are" Emily said and climbed up the rails walking towards the ticket machine. She grabbed a map from the map stands beside it and jumped back down to them.

"Well you did get what you wanted" Eric said to her.

"Right." She opened the map. It was a map of the city with the railways marked on it.

"The tracks we're on, should lead us over here" Eric said pointing on the map. "Then…then we should cross to this railway leading north."

"Alright lets do this. This should be easy" Maggie said and she took lead.

...

They stood by the side of the tracks looking in the streets below.

"Those stairs over there" Emily began "they're the ones we need to go to, right?"

"Seems like it" Maggie said looking at the map. "There's no way down from here though." she said looking around.

They stood looking around for a minute thinking…

"What if we climb down those 'poles' holding the structure of the tracks?" Eric said hesitantly believing the idea to be stupid.

"No" Emily said but her eyes were wide, "We don't need to climb them! There should be a maintenance ladder on one of them. For emergencies."

"Seems everything we use has the emergency name on it." Maggie said boringly.

"Wonder why" Eric said.

"Ok I'll go check the ones we just passed you look at the ones ahead" said Emily and turned her back on them.

She walked back, the voices of the other two behind her seemed vague. _Where are we going?_ she wondered. She haven't felt like this since the first year it all started. They had nowhere to stay and it was gonna get dark in a couple of hours. But they've been stranded dogs since this thing started anyway_. I guess we'll always be_ she though miserably.

She heard a whistle. She turned and saw Maggie beckoning her to come.

"Alright lets go" Eric said taking lead and climbing down the ladder. Emily followed and then Maggie.

"Guys do you think we need to find a place to stay, for the night?" Maggie asked while walking. "In a couple of hours it will be all dark we should think about it now."

"Did you see that train at the far end of the tracks we're heading to?" Eric asked.

"No" Emily replied.

"Yeah well, it was there-I saw it while we were up. It was far…we just get to the railway, follow it, it gets dark we hop in the train for the night. It's much safer above the ground in an abandoned train." He looked at them. "What do you think?"

"I…I have no better idea." Maggie said. "You?"

"You said it" Emily said. The others nodded and continued walking. "But…" Emily started, and stopped walking. "Who says it's abandoned?" They turned to look at her.

"That train is stopped in the middle of the tracks, that means it wasn't stopped for people to get off. Most probably…" The others were thinking about this. She continued. "We get up there and find out there are infected in that train" she said shaking her head slightly, "we have no way to get down."

After a moment Eric said "It's our best chance. Nowhere's safe…if there are infected we sneak by the sides of the railway and find somewhere else to-"

_"Sneak by the sides?"_ Maggie said a bit angry. "What makes you think they won't see us from afar and run at us? Or sense us, I don't fucking know! We're not experts in stealth you know!"

Emily was a bit torn between this. She looked around as if searching for an answer-

"Guys" she said with a scared voice. She was looking behind them. At the end of the road were Runners.

"They didn't see us yet-let's go." she said a bit frightened.

They continued jogging towards the stairs leading to the rails above.

"The streets are too dangerous Maggie, let's head up-we'll be fine." Eric tried to convince her.

"Fuck it let's go" she said and they headed up following the rails.

...

"Okay stay low and make no sound" Emily said.

They reached the train. "Eric go with Maggie on the left side, I'll go on the right."

"Maybe we should stick together?" Maggie said.

"No let's do it this way. Less noise."

"Be careful" Maggie told her and gave her a pat.

Emily crouched down and walked slowly by the train. The windows were too far up for her to see inside. She just hoped no one jumped on her from them.

The side doors were open. She gritted her teeth and leaned to look inside. She could see Eric from the opposite side doing the same a few seats behind her. There was nobody inside. That's a good start. She continued going, her heart in her throat. She reached the next door. She leaned over and lost balance.

"Sh-" she whispered frightened. There was a dead body in one of the seats and its hand dangled right in Emily's face. She made herself swallow and looked again. Nothing. It was clear. She continued until she reached the front of the train. The other side doors were locked. She went around it and saw the other two coming to her.

"Nothing" Maggie whispered. "We checked the last door. There's no one inside."

Emily nodded.

"Ready to get inside?" Eric asked.

"No" Emily said. "But let's go make sure. Pick a door and go through it."

Eric went back to the end of the train, Maggie went through the middle, and Emily got into the first front door. There was no one. Only that one dead body. Eric came from the back.

"There's no one, not even in the bathrooms."

Emily let out a sigh of relief.

"But where are they?" Maggie said, not convinced.

"I don't care, they sure as hell ain't coming back" he said walking towards the dead body. "Come on help me get rid of it." he said grabbing it's arms and turning to the girls.

They threw it out of the train, and sat down.

"Aagh" Maggie exclaimed. "So fucking tired." she said in a small voice.

"We should take turns to watch at night" Emily suggested.

"I'll take first watch" Eric volunteered. "The last one wakes us up at dawn. We'll need to get moving."

"Okay" Maggie said.

Emily put her feet up the seats and stretched them. Maybe they could get some rest. It's been a long day. She looked out the train window at the sunset. Moments like these should be calming and bring up memories. She couldn't think of anything though. It was wrong of her to day dream even for a while back at the zone. _Frogs and gardens,_ _so stupid_ she thought. _That's all gone_. The only thing the sunset meant now, was the coming of the night and darkness, making things less safe and more dangerous. She crossed her arms, closed her eyes and drifted to sleep.

...

"Close the door!" Maggie shouted

Eric turned and shut the door putting his back onto it, Emily by his side. Something started pounding on the door.

"Maggie fast!" he yelled

"I'm looking!" she snapped. She opened her backpack and started throwing stuff into it from the table, from the shelves, from anywhere.

"Goddamit!" Emily shouted. "They're gonna break in-we can't hold it!"

"Okay okay let's go" Maggie shouted. She opened the window and looked down.

"It's a good drop but we'll be fine" she turned looking at the others.

"Go!" Eric shouted

She jumped.

"Emily" he shouted again.

"You can't hold it yourself!...Together!"

"On three. One, two, three" they both said and let go of the door. They ran at the window and jumped out, landing not too softly.

"Over here!" Maggie beckoned. She was standing on the other side of a fence. "Climb over, fast!"

They started climbing as fast as they could. But no one followed them down.

"That was…too close" Emily said choking. They turned to look at the window.

"We're lucky" Eric said. "Come on…"

"Fucking Runners" Emily said.

"Lets go" Maggie sighed.

They walked a bit crossing through the backyards of some houses.

Eric turned and looked back. He shook his head "There's no one here" he said. "Hold on." The girls stopped. "Maggie what'd you got?"

"You wanna do this here?" Emily asked him.

"Here's as good as anywhere" he replied.

"I'm not sure" Maggie said putting her hand into the backpack. "There's a…pack of biscuits…a pack of cigarettes! A can of fruit, a box of first aid patches, hmm…tuna can-"

"We can scramble with that" Emily said a bit disappointed…"At least we have that gun we found."

"Hmm…"said Eric quietly. "For how long…"

"We have a choice?" Maggie asked

"Perhaps we do. If we get off the damn streets, find a safe place, instead of running around wasting energy and food, maybe-"

"Maybe what Eric?" Maggie exasperated. "Where are we gonna go-"

"Where are we going now Maggie? We-" he struggled, holding himself back. "We've been at this for days" he said quietly and angrily. "We have no idea where we're headed! We're too fucking lucky we're not dead yet."

"We will find it" Maggie said through gritted teeth. "Maybe it's further north."

"We don't even know how much north it is! For all we know it could be in Canada!" said Eric sarcastically.

Maggie turned around shaking her head her hands on her waist.

Emily looked at Eric. "We should keep going."

Eric didn't look at her.

She started walking taking lead, the other two behind her. She didn't want to get between them, that's not her business. She _was_ getting tired of this actually, but what else was there? _Maybe we could do what Eric said?_ she thought. _And then what, wait until infected find us?_

"Huh" she chuckled, _they are already on our asses anyway...no…we're gonna keep going until we find the zone_ she said determinedly. _What a slim chance…what a false hope_ she wondered.

They got out of the backyards and turned through an alley.

"Hey!" someone shouted angrily from the end of the alley. _Who the hell is he?_ Emily thought.

"Hey!" he said changing he's tone. "Em…uh…are you alright?"

"I don't like this" Eric said. He didn't look friendly. Eric turned and looked at a door to their left. "We're okay!" he shouted back to the man.

"Go in" he whispered to the girls. "To your left…now!"

They both ran in, Eric pulling out the gun as the other man pulled out his. The man shot, but Eric already jumped inside. It was a kitchen. They ran through it and got into a big restaurant. They were more people outside of it on the street.

"They're inside!" some other man shouted.

"Shit!" Maggie said. "Where do we-"

"Hide! Behind those tables at the far end" whispered Emily to Maggie. "Eric go upstairs. Now!" she added urgently when he looked defying. "You have a gun-go!"

He ran upstairs to the second floor and threw himself behind one of the tables.

Maggie and Emily went to the far end of the restaurant as those men walked in.

"Stay down" Emily whispered. She counted four of them inside and two outside.

"Take this" she said to Maggie giving her a knife she just snatched from the kitchen. She sneaked behind the tables and got behind the bar. She reached at her back jeans pocket and took out another knife.

"We know you're here and there's more of us." a man said. "Let's make this easy, why don't we?"

Emily looked at Maggie frightened. She held her knife in her sweaty hand ready to do _anything_ if any of them came. _This can't be the end_ she thought.

The men scattered through the restaurant and some were getting closer to where they were hidden. Maggie had fiery and at the same time scared eyes. She nodded to Emily. They were gonna attack together if it came to it.

The men were getting closer, one already at the front of the bar. Then a shot was heard. It was from upstairs. Emily saw them turn their heads up and the man in front of the bar turned his back to her. She took the chance and got up stabbing the man on the side of his neck, killing him. In those few milliseconds she saw that there was another one down, shot by Eric, and one other that was holding a bat. He saw her and started running towards her. She crouched back down and went to the side of the bar while he came from the other side. There was nothing she could do. She bravely got up so he could see her. She hoped for-he was about to move when Maggie stabbed him from behind-that.

Suddenly a man grabbed Emily from behind, his arms around her throat. Emily choked but raised her knife to his face. He blocked it but not perfectly, the knife cut him on the side of the face. He staggered back dropping Emily, while another shot was heard and the man dropped dead. Eric shot him.

There was another shot, but it wasn't from Eric. A man from the outside just came in and shot at Eric but missed. Emily and Maggie ducked behind the bar. Maggie sneaked to the side of the bar and kept going behind some tables unseen from the man. He was busy with noticing Eric.

Emily saw Maggie make eye contact with Eric and then shouted "Hey over here!" The man turned towards her but stayed low. He shot once towards Maggie, but she already slid down behind the tables.

_Shit now what_? Emily thought.

She crawled towards the man she killed with the knife and searched him. He had a gun! Two bullets only... _I have to do something_ she thought…_fast_.

She peeked over the bar looking around. There was a fire extinguisher over that man. She exhaled and leaned over the side of the bar shooting both bullets on that extinguisher. It burst making the man jump and move from that spot. Eric took the chance and shot him twice. There was a moment of fear in the air and tension, but it seemed quiet. They all stayed hidden for a minute.

_There was another one_ Emily thought. _Where is he?_

She heard Eric come down and got up. He looked scared but was steady.

"They're gone. I saw one run away" he said. Maggie came over and half hugged him. He looked at both of them. "You okay?"

"Yeah" Emily said.

Maggie shook her head, "I'm good."

"Okay let's search them" Emily said. "Eric watch the front door?" He nodded.

"Who the _fuck_ were they?" Maggie snapped.

"I don't know…I don't want to know…" Emily said.

She went behind the bar and searched the man Maggie killed. Nothing. She took only the bat and stuffed it in her backpack.

"I got a bat" she shouted to them.

"I got this asshole's gun" Maggie said kicking him.

"Guys!" Eric shouted. "Lets go, fast!"

There were more coming from the end of the street. The one who ran away must have warned them.

"Damn it" Emily said. They got out the front door and ran to the opposite of where those men were coming from. They turned through an alley and got out on another street.

"Shit! Dead end!" Maggie said.

"Look! Down-now!" shouted Eric.

There was an entrance to a metro station. They ran down the stairs and then some more. The place was becoming darker. There was shouting from upstairs.

"Over the bars!" Eric shouted.

They jumped the bars, usually used to allow you to get into the station, and ran through the station.

"The other exit is blocked!" Maggie shouted

"Eric!" Emily shouted. She was giving him a look of _where are we going?_

"We're not going through the-"

"What other choice we have?" he said desperately.

"Eric we don't know what's down there!" Emily pointed out. "It's too dangerous. We can't even see!"

"What else is there?" he snapped.

The men were getting closer.

"Damn it lets go!" Maggie shouted.

They jumped down to the tracks and followed them in the dark.

"I have a flashlight." Maggie said, reaching in her backpack. She found it and turned it on.

"They're still behind us" Eric said. "Come on!"

The ran in the dark, closed space of the tunnel hoping nothing would jump on them. The men were following them. They ran until they saw an abandoned train up ahead.

"The train" said Eric. "Go by the sides." Maggie took lead with the flashlight, the other two following her.

"Why are they still following us?" Maggie asked breathlessly once they passed the train and continued running.

"I don't know…lets just keep going" Eric replied with a harsh voice. They ran for a few minutes until Emily spoke "Okay, stop…they stopped." she said out of breath. She leaned down holding her side which hurt.

A loud far away noise was heard from behind them like someone hitting metal on metal.

"What are they doing?" Eric said.

Emily wide eyed said "They're attracting infected"

"What's their fucking _problem?"_ Maggie spat angrily.

"We need to get out of this shithole! Come on!" Eric said furiously.

They walked and jogged for a few minutes in the same dark-

"Stop!" Maggie shouted frightened.

Emily and Eric stopped dead. "What is it?" Emily asked.

"Spores" Maggie pointed on the beam of the flashlight up ahead.

They held onto their breaths and stood looking ahead. Emily darted her eyes around the place they were standing.

"Did we breathe them?" Eric asked with a really heavy voice.

"I don't think so" Emily replied. "We…haven't reached them yet…" _I hope_ she thought.

"What do we do?" Maggie asked. "We…"

She didn't have to finish her sentence. They were all thinking the same thing. They could head back and be greeted by infected and those murdering men, or they could move forward through the spores hoping to reach the other side.

Emily started feeling dizzy with all of this. The darkness pressuring them to choose a way between death and death was daunting and was wearing her down. She tried to swallow thinking…she was the first one to speak. "We have no choice."

"No we don't" Eric said. "Either way…"

"But…" Maggie began, not really finishing her sentence...

"Maybe…" she started again, "maybe we can go back-"

"You know better than that Maggie" Eric said.

"I know, but what are we hoping with going forward?"

"At least there _is_ hope forward" Eric said quietly.

There was silence again. Eric looked at Emily their eyes saying something like _let's do this_. Then he turned to Maggie.

She bowed her head and after a moment said "Okay"

"Hold your breath as long as you can" Eric said trying to reassure them.

"Wait!" Emily said. She put her hand in her backpack and took out a t-shirt.

"Do you have something to wear?" she asked. "Let's put it around our face just to be sure."

They both nodded and found a piece of clothing.

"Let's go" said Eric. "Stay together, stay close and run."

The girls nodded, Maggie took a deep breath, took lead and ran, the others following her.

The spores got denser and as the light of the flashlight hit the side walls Emily could see those hideous cordyceps coming from the inside of someone dead. But he wasn't the only one. There were a few more dead on the left and right, some 'glued' to the walls.

They ran fast holding their breaths until they saw far away the next station. _That was it_ Emily thought, _we're nearly out-_

Then the flashlight died.

Emily stopped dead. She heard the others stop too. She felt like her breath was taken away, that her lungs suddenly had less air than before, as if fear filled them instead. She thought she was going to crumble down but instead she spread her arms trying to find the others in the dark. She didn't want to open her mouth to say anything because of the spores and neither it seemed did Eric or Maggie.

She was running out of breath and she started panicking. She felt another hand touch her left arm and then grabbing it and pushing her forward. She hoped Eric held Maggie too and as she moved forward for a second, again she suddenly stopped and so did Eric.

_Click, click._ It was a-

She didn't even have time to end her thought when Eric pushed her forward. And thank god he did. They were running out of breath and they couldn't see anyway. She could hear that clicking pass them and then behind them, as they ran, that sharp breath, meaning only one thing. They got closer to the station and the spores were less dense.

Suddenly Eric let go of her violently. She turned around but couldn't see anything. She was gonna pass out. She turned and ran towards the station and a few meters afterwards the spores were gone in the air. She could hear a struggle behind her. She leaned down choking and coughing, taking fast shallow breaths. She tried standing up, staggering and breathing uncontrollably turning to the way she came from. She had an urge to stay there but she made herself move towards Eric and Maggie taking another deep breath before going. Right when she was about to reach the spores, they came out darting towards her.

"RUN!" Eric yelled, holding Maggie from the arm.

Emily followed them reaching the station and climbing up. She could hear the Clickers behind them but she didn't stop. They ran towards the exit, through the corridors and up the stairs. In the middle of the stairs leading out they collapsed breathing too fast.

They couldn't run anymore. But they were out. It was over. The sky welcomed them right out the exit.

Eric crawled to Maggie.

"Are you okay?" he asked placing his arms on her shoulders. "Are you bitten?" When she didn't reply he shook her.

"Are you okay?" he asked again

"I'm okay" she said breathlessly and teary eyed. "I'm okay…"

He bowed his head and turned to Emily.

"Emily?"

"I'm…fine" she said.

He backed down on the wall and held his head.

They sat there for five minutes without talking to each other.

"Did they-" Emily decided to break the silence.

"Someone grabbed Maggie. But they didn't get us, no"

Maggie looked shocked. _I would have looked worse_ Emily thought.

"We need to keep moving" Emily continued. "Let's…find a place to rest."

They got up and got out of the station. It was nearly night.

"Let's get in that construction building. It looks abandoned." Emily suggested.

They others agreed. They walked all the way up the stairs, to the third floor and found a place they could rest. The building wasn't finished so there were no windows, no doors, just gray walls with pipes and metal sticking out of them. Emily reached the opening where a window would have been and placed her hands on it putting her weight on them, looking out. She closed her eyes. She had no thoughts in her head at all. She was blank. She could only feel that small breeze on her face.

Eric went over to a wall and slid down his hands on his head. Maggie went over to a corner and sat down too, crossing her arms across her legs and staring ahead.

They stayed like that not wanting to move, or maybe they couldn't. Time passed. The sun was going down. Soon it would be dark. At least they could stay here for the night. Maggie got up and got closer to Eric and Emily. She just stood there looking at Eric. They both turned to look at her.

She looked afraid, holding one hand in the other and her breathing was unstable. She looked like she wanted to say something but couldn't get the words out of her.

Emily understood what.

Eric's eyes shone and he got up leaning onto the wall, holding himself from falling.

There was a deadly silence from all three as they stood there communicating with their eyes. Maggie's eyes were talking to them, saying to them what they didn't want to know.

"No" he whispered in disbelief and denial.

Maggie's eyes looked on the floor darting left and right, blinking fast.

"No" said Eric again, reaching an arm out to her getting away from the wall.

Maggie took a step back. "Don't" she said looking at him in a choked voice.

"I'm sorry" she said tears running down her eyes. "I'm sorry…"

Eric took another step closer ready to grab her but she took more steps back.

"Don't please…"she said crying. "I can't…"

Eric stood frozen his arm still stretched to reach her. Tears started running from his eyes too. He put his arm down and bowed his head.

"Maggie-" Emily started. She didn't know what to say to her. She suddenly felt it was her fault.

Maggie looked at her. "I'm sorry" she said.

"It's…it's gonna be okay" Eric said to Maggie. "We're-"

"No!" said Maggie harshly. She closed her eyes and said with a heavy voice "I don't want to turn."

"Maggie-" Eric started.

"I'll do it myself!" she said in a chocked voice.

"Maybe we could-"

"Eric…" she said, her eyes opening, begging. "Please"

"No, no" he was whispering more to himself.

Emily got closer to Maggie and looked at her. They stood there for a few moments and Maggie nodded her head. Emily swallowed hard while Maggie reached for her backpack and pulled out a gun, her hands shaking.

Eric burst out "I'm not gonna let you, I'm not gonna-"

"Eric" she said. "There is no choice." She looked at him in the eyes and with all the strength she could muster turned towards a half-built room and stepped into it.

Eric was about to follow her when Emily put her hands on his chest holding him from his t-shirt.

He wanted to push her but he didn't. He knew. They stayed like that for nearly a minute until a gunshot was heard.

Eric immediately broke down and pushed Emily out of the way running to that room.

"MAGGIE!" he shouted. "Maggie, Maggie…" he said with a voice out of this world.

Emily, her eyes wet, stood looking at the wall of that room and then turned back and walked to the window. She looked outside blindly. The only thought that popped in her head, was that Maggie's last breath…was taken down there in the dark. She could hear behind her Eric's cries while the sun in front of her sank into the horizon.

...

There was a sudden sound from below. Emily turned and ran towards the stairs looking down.

"Huh!" she exhaled crouching. _Runners._

She went slowly to the room were Eric still was. She got in and saw him lying next to his sister's body. She took a glance at Maggie and hastily looked at Eric.

"Runners" she said.

He was lost. His eyes were red and he looked out of place.

"I'm not leaving her" he said in a deep voice that hardly came out.

"I know, but we have to deal with them."

"Shoot them" Eric said

"More of them will come!" Emily exclaimed." Eric-" she hesitated. "They're coming. We'll come back for her" she added.

He took a moment and got up. He wasn't steady. They walked slowly to the stairs and leaned to look down.

_Clank_! Eric kicked a metal pipe by accident. They looked at each other and then down. The Runners heard them and were coming up.

"Shit!" Emily said backing of. She was looking around. _Maybe the roof?_ she thought. She looked outside the building. There were more buildings next to this one but they couldn't jump to them. She ran around and then she saw it.

"Eric" she said "take that plank, let's cross to the nearby building."

"I'm not leaving her" he said again furiously.

"Eric you know they're not gonna touch her, we'll come back for her."

He bit his lips but ran to the plank, grabbed it and placed it over to the other building, over the emergency stairs.

"Come on!" he shouted to Emily. She climbed over and started crossing it carefully, Eric behind her.

The Runners reached the room. Eric grabbed the end of the plank and pulled it away.

They tried to get to them, throwing their arms around but they were too far away.

Eric was looking past them. Emily knew he wanted to go to Maggie. But they couldn't. She turned around hoping to get in through the window when she saw someone in. They shared a quick glance and then Emily pulled Eric by the shirt.

"UP!" she shouted. He obeyed her mindlessly running fast upstairs. At the last floor they saw a window and jumped into the building.

"There was a man-with a rifle" breathed Emily.

"Shit" Eric said.

"Let's move." They walked silently through the room and opened the door slightly. There was no one.

"To the other room on the other side" Emily suggested.

They sneaked to it and tried closing the door behind them but it creaked.

"Damn" said Eric

"Leave it" said Emily crossed to the window. There was another apartment building.

"Maybe we can jump to the emergency stairs?" she asked desperately. "Eric?"

She turned around. Eric was looking outside from the other window in the room, with a sad look in his face. Emily reached him. She looked to where Eric was staring. It was the quarantine zone. It was…abandoned…

Eric's eyes got wet and Emily felt her heart sink to the bottom. After all…it was destroyed. There was nothing…

A noise on their left made them turn and before they knew it a man hit Eric in the face making him fall down unconscious and another one hit Emily with his rifle on her head. The last thing she saw, was that Firefly symbol on the man's arm.


	3. ONE IN A MILLION - JANUARY

3 YEARS LATER

JANUARY

The trees looked blurry, the rain was splashing the window and the sky looked dark. Emily sat at the back of the car staring out of the window. It was cold and the conditioner of the car wasn't working to at least turn the heat on. She blew hot air in her hands. Another cold day. Another cold winter.

"So…" Barry started. "How come you're joining us again?" he said smiling, looking at her through the rearview mirror.

"I'm here to help. I'm a…uh, biologist-"

"I didn't know that!" he exclaimed. "You never told me" he said giving her a funny look.

"No reason to" she replied

"So what, uh, what are they hoping you can do then?" he said curiously. "I didn't think there'd be a need for you."

"Communicate"

"Huh!" he laughed. "Cross half the country for that? A bit worthless if you ask me-"

"She can handle herself" Eric said seriously. Eric was sitting at the passenger's seat looking out the window too.

Barry looked at him and said in the same tone "Yeah she can, can't she" and looked back up at the mirror.

"Fight _and_ talk science!" he continued. "That's good qualifications in this world." Emily didn't answer.

"So…" Barry said after a moment of silence "what do you expect to talk about?"

"Nothing" spat Eric. "We go to him, he gives us the info. If Emily says the ok, the deal's sealed and we smuggle him out. If not, we get the hell outta there."

"Easy Eric" Barry told him. "I'm just trying to know more with what we're dealing with here."

"You just get us in and let us worry about that" Eric said quietly. "You got your orders we got ours."

"Alright…_soldier_!" Barry told him sarcastically.

Eric didn't reply but made a grimace.

"We're heading in" Barry spoke after half an hour. "Stay alert."

"Always are" Emily said. They turned into the city. The tall buildings towered over them and the dark sky was not welcoming. Neither was the dirty snow on the road, or the abandoned streets that looked pale as if they were sick.

Barry drove them inside the city turning carefully at every corner. Emily was looking out for anything dangerous or suspicious. Driving a car is not really that safe anymore. It's either attracting infected or hunters, especially if driving in the streets and not the highway.

"We're here" Barry said. He turned the car into an alley and stopped. "Open it" he nodded Eric towards a garage in front of them, handing him the key. Eric took it and got out of the car. Barry went through the open garage and parked it.

Emily got out while Eric was closing the garage door behind them. Barry picked up a sheet from the trunk of the car and covered it.

"Better than nothing" he turned to them.

"Nice hideout you got here." Emily complimented.

"Yeah gotta have a private place if I'm coming so often here." Barry explained. "Alright" he continued. "Grab your stuff and let's head upstairs."

"Are we heading out in this weather?" Eric asked

"It's not that bad" Barry said. "Hunters don't come out in this weather usually, and I don't think infected like it either, so better for us to get a move on now."

"Okay" Eric said.

"Is this place safe?" Emily asked

"Most of the time. But still, let's be careful" Barry replied.

They continued going up the stairs. Everything seemed okay…for now. Emily had her gun at her holster ready though. She's seen enough so she was expecting anything and everything.

"Come on" he told them. They stepped through the door leading to the roof and followed Barry to the edge of it. The rain was frustrating but there wasn't a lot.

"Alright we're gonna play a little game" he told them walking behind a reservoir and picking up a ladder. He extended it and placed one end on this roof and the other to the roof of the other building, connecting them like a bridge.

"We're gonna cross the five buildings you see in front of you. Whoever gets to the final one without falling, is the winner!" he joked.

"Hmm" Emily chuckled. "I'm going first" she said.

"That's the spirit" he said raising a fist.

Eric looked at him grimly, shook his head and followed Emily.

"Careful" Emily said to Eric a bit worried.

"I got this" he told her crossing it. "Alright big guy your turn" Eric told Barry as soon as he landed. Barry crossed it, picked up the ladder and placed it again on the other edge. They did so for the other buildings too. At the last one Barry took the ladder closed it and hid it under a piece of sheet that was lying on the floor.

"You got everything worked out haven't you?" Emily asked

"That's why I'm the best" he said smiling. "The roads below are blocked so the only way to get to this side, is either through the buildings or above them."

"Alright let's go down" he said taking lead climbing down the stairs. The rain started getting stronger and until they reached the ground floor it was downpour.

"We're not going out this door are we?" Eric said pointing to the door they were obviously gonna go through.

"Look the rain is bad for us, but it's bad for others too. We have a place to be but they don't, meaning they probably won't strut out in this weather. So I suggest we move now."

"I hate it too" Emily said "but I think he has a point. Let's put our raincoats and snow goggles on and go."

"Alright, you better be right" he told Barry.

"Kid I've been through this before" Barry said opening the door.

Rainfall welcomed them outside and the streets looked darker than ever. They wore their goggles, zipped their coats up to their throat and wore the raincoats on top. They stepped out. It was like stepping into the shower. The rain was hitting their backs and heads like bullets. They walked the abandoned and dark streets for a long time. Emily's shoulders were as hard as rocks from the cold and rain but she knew they were at least safe. Barry wasn't wrong bringing them out.

_Animals_ always hide from the rain…

...

"Ugh…ok" Barry said closing the metal door behind them. They stepped into an underground mall.

"From here on you be extra careful." he warned them and started walking. "This is the only way to the other side. It's usually pretty quiet but you can expect some infected. We do this quietly, we should be fine."

"Barry I don't like this" Emily said. "There's downpour outside, whoever was usually out in the streets is now staying inside. What makes you think no ones in here?"

He raised his hand revealing a key to the metal door he just opened. "Cause I got this" he said.

"Hmm" said Emily. "You're handy."

"Hmph" Eric exhaled sarcastically.

They turned on their flashlights and followed Barry.

"The only thing negative" Barry said "is that we have to head down so we can head up. The upstairs exit is blocked, and I don't have a key" he added. "So we head to the lowest level and go out through the parking lot."

"Great" Eric said. "Let's just hope this place is safe."

The mall was a huge, wide place. It was like a round cylinder underground. Actually three cylinders, one fitting into each other forming the corridors to the many shops and restaurants. It went three floors down and unfortunately that's where they had to go. They walked to the stairs and headed down. They were on the last floor when they heard-

_Click_

Barry turned to look at them holding a finger to his lips. He opened the door slightly and peeked out.

"There's a bunch of them" he said closing the door. "Hmph" he exhaled.

"What are you thinking" Eric asked.

"The way we need to go is at the very far end of the mall. There are glass doors leading to the parking lot." he said taking a map out of his backpack. "This is the route we need to follow." Eric and Emily stared at the map.

It was easy, of course it was, it's a mall, but with the Clickers it was more complicated.

"Okay" Eric said. He looked at Emily and nodded. She nodded back.

"Alright" Barry said and opened the door. He got out first following the shops on the left. Emily headed out next, taking the right side staying close to the shops too. She looked back and saw Eric get out. They were gonna take different routes to get to those glass doors. Each one was responsible for themselves and always stayed in sight of someone else. That way they made less noise, it was safer and if anything happened they could warn or help each other.

Emily took the knife out of her pocket. She held it for a few seconds not moving. She's been through this before. But she always felt…uneasy. Fear never runs out. _Make no noise and everything will be fine_ she thought. Staying crouched she sneaked along the shops and was about to head to a corridor on the right when she saw two Clickers. She took a few steps back and walked inside the shop on the right. She went through it and got out from it's other door, the Clickers behind her. She continued down the corridor and turned left.

_How many are there?_ she thought. There were two Clickers in the corridor up ahead and one other standing right in front of an entrance to a coffee shop. She followed the corridor for a bit and stopped.

_Click click_.

_I hate those sounds_ she thought. One of the Clickers went past her clicking and walking uncontrollably, having spasms all over its body. Her heart beat a lot faster now that it was closer. She tried to control it, like always. The Clicker passed and she let out a sigh. She continued slowly through the corridor but there was that other one standing there. She watched it for a minute but it didn't move. She was gonna have to get past it. She sneaked very slowly towards it. She was really close. She looked up to its face and looked away fast. That fungus wasn't her favorite picture. She was a bit ahead of it when a sound from up ahead was heard. The Clicker behind her heard it and made a sudden movement. It started walking fast towards that sound.

_Shit!_ Emily thought. It was gonna bump into her. She reacted fast. She got up, and as it was getting closer she raised the knife and stuck it in its throat. The Clicker fell down dead.

She stood there scared to death. She turned around and saw Eric a bit further away looking at her. He nodded his head as if asking _you're okay?_ Emily nodded okay back. Then she saw a couple of Clickers moving towards the place that noise was made. That was the way she needed to go too though. She walked into the coffee shop on the left where that other Clicker was standing before, and was now heading towards that sound. She took a small metal box from the counter and headed to the other door of the shop. She looked around, picked a spot and threw the box. It made a loud clanking noise that echoed through the whole corridor. The Clickers bought it. They moved fast to it. Emily took the chance and sped up a bit towards the corridor she needed to go. _One more_ she thought and looked ahead to were the glass doors were. She looked to her far left and saw Eric entering a shop. She searched for Barry. He was nearly to the exits.

Emily took a shaky breath. She moved left but stopped nearly immediately. There was a Stalker up ahead-and he saw her. He made a horrible, loud growling sound and started running towards her. That startled the other Clickers in the area too.

"Fuck!" Emily said and ran into an ice cream shop on her right. There was a Clicker inside, but as it heard her and was about to turn around, she stabbed it in the head taking it out. The Stalker followed her and she turned around to face him. He jumped at her but she dodged him sticking that knife in its back and then in its neck. She turned around and saw another Stalker jump at her but she didn't have time to raise her knife. She heard a shot as the Stalker grabbed onto her making them fall down, Emily on her back. The Stalker on top of her was dead. She threw him over and saw Eric with a gun out, coming towards her. He extended his hand and she grabbed it getting up.

"We gotta run" he said and taking lead he got out of the door, Emily following him.

They turned the corner and saw Barry beckoning them at the glass doors. Emily could hear Clickers behind them but they ran. They reached the broken glass doors and went through them out into the parking lot.

"Run-up" Barry said.

They still had to go three floors up to get out. They reached the second floor and got behind some cars. They stayed there for a while. They could hear the infected on the floor below.

"They didn't follow us" Eric said.

"That was close" Emily said. A sudden fear hit her as she thought of that Stalker jumping onto her. She looked at Eric. "Thanks" she said.

"Don't worry about it" he answered back.

"I don't see anyone." Barry said looking around the parking lot.

"Me neither" Eric said. "Let's move"

They got up and jogged through the lot. They were ready to start going upstairs when a loud noise was heard behind the doors of the toilets.

THUMP! THUMP!

They stopped dead looking towards the place it was coming from.

BOOM! The door broke down and a Bloater came out from it.

"RUN!" Barry yelled and they ran fast upstairs to the last parking floor.

They turned the corner and saw a bunch of Clickers and Stalkers.

"Shit!" Emily shouted. She turned around to look back and she saw the Bloater following them.

"We gotta go through them" she said to the others scared.

"Let's do this" Barry said taking his shotgun off his back. Emily took out her gun too and all of them started running towards the final exit. They were shooting at every infected that was in their way. Barry took the rear and turned around to shoot the Bloater.

"Reloading!" Eric shouted. Emily covered him. They were nearly out. Emily shot the one infected in front of the exit and they ran through it. They ran up the ramp, and out in the rain. The downpour didn't get at all better. They could hear infected behind them.

"Follow me!" Barry shouted.

Eric and Emily followed him through the streets. They ran through an alley and out on the streets again.

"Over here!" he shouted and entered a bank. They got inside following him and ran up the stairs. "To the second floor!"

They looked around them. The bank looked empty.

"Okay" he whispered. "We good. They lost us."

They were breathing fast. Eric sat down on the couch looking at his gun. Then he said "I thought you said a couple of infected" looking up at Barry.

"They must have come in because of the rain and snow." Emily said

"Perfect."

"At least we were lucky we got away from that Bloater." Barry said. "He never was there before."

"He was" Emily said quietly, "he just didn't show up."

There was a few minutes of silence and then Barry spoke.

"Ready to move on?"

"Where are we headed now?" Eric asked.

"Well" Barry began, "there's a house a few miles ahead. I managed to keep it safe" he said. "I have the key to the attic. We can rest there."

"We're soaking wet" Eric spat getting up. "We're going through the streets again right?"

Barry opened his arms in a gesture that meant obviously.

"Hmm" Emily exhaled. She put the gun in her holster. "Let's go then."

...

She was lying on the couch looking out of the window down at the dirty, snowy streets. The sky was clear today. _No rain_ she thought. And she felt good too. After they reached the house, she woke up the next day to find that she was sick. Fever. The rain and cold got to her. She felt extremely stupid that they had to stop for this. But she couldn't move to save her life. So they stayed in the attic for a week and a half. Today they were heading out, finally.

"Hey" Eric reached her and sat at the end of the couch. "Barry's gonna come in a bit. You ready?" he asked her.

"Yeah" she said. She lowered her head and made a grimace. "I'm sorry I-"

"You say that one more time and I'll slap you" Eric said.

"Hmpf…okay" she said with a chuckle.

Eric shook his head.

There was a sound of unlocking and Barry stepped in.

"Ready?" he asked them.

"Right behind you" Eric replied. "Come on" he added to Emily.

She got up, grabbed her backpack and followed them. The streets were empty and quiet and really cold. It looked as if it was going to snow though in a while.

"Alright we go east from here, there's a bridge we have to cross before we can move on." Barry said.

The two men were walking ahead of Emily. They were saying something but Emily wasn't listening. It's been more than a week since she got out of that attic. The cold, fresh air brushing on her face felt…_amazing_. She closed her eyes for a second trying to enjoy the feeling but opened them almost immediately. _Stay vigilant_ she thought. _No time for this._

They continued walking for an hour and crossed through a park. The trees were all wet from the rain and smelled nice and the snow was cleaner here. It covered the benches the playground, the bushes. It felt like walking through a Christmas card.

Emily couldn't help but ponder if there were small animals still living in those bushes and trees.

They kept going reaching the bridge. A big part of the bridge was destroyed but there was a visible way by its side still intact. They walked on it, the river underneath it was frozen. It looked kind of cool from this height. A snow flake got in Emily's eye. She rubbed it and looked up. It started snowing.

There were a lot of cars on the bridge. All abandoned. One behind the other. All the people were trying to cross the bridge when it all happened. It seemed they had to run instead...

_Click_

Emily turned to look at it. A Clicker. The noise was coming out from one of the cars. It was trapped in.

"Phh" exhaled Emily. "It's not getting us."

She turned to look at the others who were looking at the Clicker too. "Someone trapped it in there." she said.

"Probably hunters" Barry said. "Let's go."

They reached the place where part of the bridge was gone.

"Watch yo steps" Barry said. They started walking by the side when they heard noise up ahead. They stood for a second and they saw that a truck just turned the corner far away beyond the bridge. But it was obvious that it was heading towards it.

"Hunters" Barry said.

"We going back?" Eric asked.

"They didn't see us yet" Barry started

"I don't think we can sneak by them" Eric said.

"We should head back, pick a spot to hide and wait till they cross it." Barry suggested. "Then we cross it."

"Guys wait." Emily said. They turned to look at her. "Umm…they have a truck. The truck can't cross the bridge, it's blown apart" Emily pointed out. "_They-" _ she interrupted Eric before he could speak, "are gonna park the truck in the middle of the bridge and leave it by itself?" she asked. "Someone's gonna stay behind with it."

"Where are you getting at?" Eric asked.

"We're still gonna have to deal with them if we want to cross the bridge."

"So, we do sneak past them? Kill em? That's dangerous-not gonna work." Eric said

"I know…I" she said thinking.

"Wait I-I have an idea." she broke out. She walked to the edge of the bridge and hopped over the bars by its side. She held onto the railing and looked down.

"Look!" she said to the others. They joined her.

"We jump down there" she was pointing on the metal grating, "and we go beneath the bridge." There're maintenance catwalks beneath it. We can use them to cross the bridge and the hunters won't see us."

Barry and Eric looked at each other.

"Good thing _you_ came along" Barry said amazed. "Let's go then!"

They jumped down on the metal grating, ducked under the bridge and got onto the catwalks.

"Alright good one Emily" said Eric. "Let's go-quietly."

They started walking on the catwalk. After a bit they could hear the truck from above them and what seemed like a dozen hunters walking around it. The truck stopped at the part of the bridge that was destroyed.

"You know what to do!" someone shouted from above.

Half of them crossed the bridge to the other side where the three of them just came from. The other half scattered around the area over them searching the cars.

"There's some more at the end of the road" Barry said looking far away. "After we cross the bridge that's where we need to go."

"We can deal with the few up ahead." Eric said confidently.

They kept moving and reached the end of the bridge. Eric boosted Emily up and she peeked over the edge of the bridge.

"Careful" he grunted holding her.

She looked around. On the left were the hunters near the truck. They needed to go right. "There's a, uh, a pet shop on the right. Doors are right open. Hold on" she whispered to Eric.

"I got you" he said through gritted teeth.

She looked a bit more. "Okay" she said looking down and jumping. "We can do this but only if we're fast. As long as they're looking the other way, we're okay. We can throw ourselves into the shop. Then we'll see." she added.

"Alright" Barry said. "Come on one at a time."

"I'll go first-"

"No you boost me up again" Emily said.

"It's dangerous-"

"It's easier. Now Eric!" she added when he looked defying.

"Huh" he exhaled in frustration and boosted her up. She grabbed onto the edge and pulled herself up. She stayed low. The hunters were looking the other way. She sneaked hastily into the pet shop and threw herself behind some cages. She waited for a bit and then the others appeared.

"Alright see that window?" she said nodding towards one at the side of the building. "Let's go out."

They went out into an alley and peeked over to the street.

"That bus is gonna provide us cover" Barry said. "The hunters on the left won't see us. Then we sneak on those other bastards."

Emily looked at him and nodded. It should be easy. There's lots of cover from the abandoned cars.

"Alright" said Eric taking out his knife. "Again-quietly. Stay in sight." he added and crouching he went over to the other side of the road.

"I got the rear" Barry said. Emily took her knife out and sneaked out of the shop staying on this side of the road. She continued going behind the cars getting closer to the hunters. The others were doing the same too. Eric was on her far left a bit ahead, Barry was closer on her left a bit behind, and she was on the right side of the road.

She could see hunters inside some of the buildings and some on the street. She saw Eric on her left take out one. The others didn't notice.

"Hey found anything?" one of them shouted. It was from a balcony inside of a building on the right side.

_Shit, a sniper!_ Emily thought. She looked at the others. Eric was somewhere inside a shop and Barry exchanged a glance with her nodding.

"Shit!" she exclaimed. That sniper was trouble. Her heart started beating faster as she thought her next move. She could get to that sniper. It was on her side. She turned to an alley on the right and went behind the buildings.

_Yes!_ she thought. There was an emergency ladder on the building the sniper was. She jumped on a dumpster and then grabbed onto the ladder, climbing it.

She got into the building. He was on the second floor. She climbed the stairs and saw the door of an apartment open. He was in there. She crouched and sneaked slowly in.

_There he is_ she thought looking at his back. _Okay, okay. Real slow now…_

She approached him and raised her knife. Right before he knew it, she stabbed him in the back making him drop the rifle. She raised her other hand over his mouth. He let out a last breath and died. She stayed crouched, picked the rifle and peeked over the balcony. She saw Barry and nodded. Eric saw her too. There was one hunter left.

"Good job guys" she whispered.

Barry reached the last one and took him out.

"Phh" Emily exhaled. She got up and gestured with her hand to them.

BAM!

A shot was heard from the left. Barry was shot on the back of his shoulder. Emily saw him fall down. There were more hunters coming from the bridge. Someone must have saw them.

Emily crouched fast.

"Barry" she whispered.

There were more shots heard. She peeked over and placed the rifle on the balcony. She saw Eric shoot back at them. She had one on sight.

BAM! he fell down. She reloaded fast and found another one. BAM! She got him too.

Someone was shooting at her too. She crouched back.

_Damn!_

She heard more shots and then it was silence.

_Eric?_ she though panicked. She placed her rifle again and looked. There was no one.

"Ohh" she sighed in relief. Eric was okay. He was heading to Barry.

She got up threw the rifle over her shoulder and ran downstairs.

"Eric" she called out to him seriously.

"He's unconscious" he said. "Ugh" he was trying to pull him up. "Help me!"

Emily grabbed Barry from one side, Eric from the other.

"Fast-go" he said.

"Where?" Emily asked panicked.

"There" he said nodding his head towards an alley straight ahead. They struggled to it. There could hear voices behind them.

"They're coming" Emily breathed.

"Come on to the right" Eric said.

They got out on the street and were looking around.

"Over here. In here" Eric urged her grunting.

They stepped down some stairs and through an open door. The lock was broken. It was an underground strip club. They went lower to the second floor and stopped. It was dark.

Emily's heart raced from the unknown in the darkness beyond, and she was exhausted from Barry's weight.

"Hold him" she said breathlessly.

She let go of him, turned on her flashlight and reached for her gun. She got further in the club frightened. There was no one. She half expected infected, these places are usually crowded. But then she saw the dust and how the place looked half-empty with things on the floor. It was an abandoned one. Probably closed off before the outbreak. She felt a heavy weight lift and made herself check the bar, storage room and bathrooms.

"Alright it's clear." she said and ran to Eric.

"Where are-" he started as she passed him. She pointed her flashlight on the floor near the double doors they just entered, searching for something.

"Got it!"

She grabbed the door stopper and climbed back up the stairs and went to the exit. She didn't know if the hunters followed them but she closed the door and put the door stopper from the inside.

She walked back down. Eric put Barry down on the floor.

"Come on help me" he said. They grabbed Barry and laid him on a couch. Eric turned on his flashlight too.

"Huh" he exhaled tired. "You think that's gonna hold?" he asked Emily.

"No" she said. "But it's something."

"We need light" Eric said standing up. "Search the place."

They both got up and searched the rooms. After a couple of minutes, Emily found an oil lamp and lit it.

"Here, found something" she said to Eric.

"Good"

Emily placed it next to the table Barry was lying and went over to the bathroom. She took out her gun and broke the mirror with it. She took a big broken piece and went over to Barry again.

Eric was over him checking his wound. Emily placed the mirror in a tissue holder and put it behind the oil lamp. The light bounced over the mirror to the whole room. It was still dark but better than nothing.

"Smart" Eric said looking at her.

Emily nodded her head.

"Huh" he said shaking his head and looking at Barry. "We gotta fix him."

"I know" Emily replied.

Eric looked at her. "You okay?" he asked.

"I'm okay. You?"

"Okay" he said.

Emily nodded again and lowered her head with a sigh, thinking that this was starting to get really ugly.

...

The weather was extreme for walking. There was a cold wind, snow falling heavily and the streets were slippery and blocked from snow.

Eric and Emily were walking slowly, their raincoats and goggles on, but the cold was inevitable, and so was getting wet. This time at least, Emily was prepared and wore everything she had to keep warm.

They walked through the streets reaching the entrance of the building they were supposed to go through. It was a huge museum. Barry let them know that there were two ways to get to the part of the city where the quarantine zone was. Through the casino or through the museum. They tried going through the casino first, but it seemed they had no luck. There were too many infected and they barely got out. So there was only one option left.

They reached the entrance and stood on both sides of the double doors with their guns ready. Eric peeked through the doors.

"I don't see anyone." he said turning to look at Emily. She nodded her head and Eric stepped in, Emily covering him. The very first room was a round room with a huge statue in the middle. The doors up front led to the rest of the museum. The windows were broken and the cold wind came in blowing the tapestries.

"We're good for now" Eric said taking his goggles off and raincoat.

"Okay" said Emily taking a map of the museum that Barry gave them from her backpack. "Um, this should be easy" she said. "We follow these corridors and we should find the other entrance of the museum. We go out from there"

"Lead the way."

"Huh" she sighed and took lead. She followed the corridor leading to the rest of the museum, turned to another corridor to the left and then again to another on the right.

"Dammit" she said. There was debris in the middle of it. They couldn't go through.

"It would happen" Eric said. "Let's head up these stairs find a way from above" he said walking to the stairs on the right.

They came out in a large room with tombs, mummies, ancient equipment, statues. Things from Egypt.

"I'm guessing there's stairs on the other end" said Eric

"Hmm" Emily hummed in agreement.

Emily looked at all the ancient artifacts. They were really interesting. _A lost time in history, in another lost time in history_ she thought.

She turned to look at Eric. "You like archeology" she said matter of factly.

"I do" he said but he wasn't even slightly interested in looking at them. She didn't pursue it.

They found stairs after all at the end of the room. They climbed down and continued through the corridor.

"Wait, wait!" said Eric in a whisper. "Infected"

There were Stalkers in the corridor, and in both rooms left and right.

"I'm so fucking tired of those things" spat Emily.

"I know. See any way to get past them?"

"Hmph" Emily said negatively. There was a moment of silence. "Do you hear that?"

"Yeah" Eric said. He turned to look at her his eyes wide. "Bloater"

"Shit." Emily said angrily. "Shit, _shit!_"

"I don't see any other way either." Eric said looking around.

"Do you have any smoke bombs?" Emily asked.

Eric took his backpack of his back and searched. "Yeah got a couple."

"We only need one."

"Okay, get ready." They took out their goggles and wore them.

They crouched and stayed low, walking slowly and silently towards the infected. Eric nodded to a way through the room on the right leading to the next corridor. Emily saw it and nodded back to him. He raised his hand and threw the smoke bomb. It exploded creating a huge cloud of smoke. The infected saw it but they couldn't see them. Eric and Emily still crouched rushed through the room. The infected made those horrible breathing sounds and growls. As much as safe the smoke bomb felt, Emily still felt uneasy and scared. There was always a feeling of tension and suspense around the infected. It was an everyday feeling and after all these years it didn't get any better. The only thing that could get better, is them handling it.

They passed them and got up looking behind taking of the goggles.

"Let's go" Eric mouthed.

They walked only for a few feet when a Stalker jumped from a room on the left. It grabbed Eric. He struggled with him but it was a big one. Emily took out her gun and shot him, breathing fast.

Eric looked scared to death and was looking at something behind her. Emily turned around seeing the infected they just avoided running towards them.

"RUN!" Eric yelled.

They turned around and started running.

CRACK!

Suddenly the wooden floor gave in and they found themselves falling down into water. It was freezing. They resurfaced and swam to some tracks on the floor, coughing. Emily, shaking from the cold rolled on her back, looking at the hole of the floor above them. No infected came through it. She turned to look at Eric who was also shaking. The room was very dark and she could feel a lot of humidity. It was a lot warmer though. The place it seems, has been completely cut off of from the atmosphere outside.

"Argh" Emily struggled to get up. She was grateful they fell in the water at least. The drop would probably kill them in any other case.

She looked around. It was an artificial jungle. There were plants, trees, mud, roots sticking out of the ground and…_a dinosaur?_

Emily turned to look at Eric puzzled.

"A glimpse of the dinosaur era" said Eric with shaky voice.

_Great!_ Emily thought looking around. _We're in fucking Jurassic Park._

"See a way out?" she asked.

"Let's follow the tracks" Eric suggested.

Emily shook her head in agreement. They turned on their flashlights, and took out their guns. It was really dark. The ride was build underground and that wasn't good.

They followed the tracks slowly, their hands shaking. Emily could see different types of dinosaurs on the left and right with big signs next to them giving info, and televisions which probably showed the types on dinosaurs in animation. They walked up a small hill and entered a more large area. There was more water up ahead on the left, forming a big lake and on the right was the famous T-Rex. A small train ride was stopped in the middle of the tracks. They walked past it and kept following the railway.

"Stop." Eric said urgently. "Look."

_Spores._

"The masks-now!" Emily said hastily.

They took out their oxygen masks from their backpacks and wore them. Emily approached Eric. "Let's be careful. There could be infected."

Eric nodded.

Emily raised her gun and followed Eric through the spores. The spores were everywhere. Emily was feeling bad about this. They reached a hill that was leading to an opening. It was the way out.

"Oh my-" Emily said repulsed.

There was a big amount of dead bodies on the tracks, on the platform, scattered everywhere.

_They shot them_ she thought. _To stop them from going out._ She made herself not think about it too much and walked through the platform. There were some turnstiles. They jumped over them and took off their masks. No spores here. She turned to look at Eric. He looked grim. He always did around spores…

"We aren't going out" Eric said. "We need to stay inside or we'll freeze to death."

"Agreed. Where's safe in a museum?"

Eric thought about it. "In the conservation room?" he said.

"Let's check it out." Emily agreed.

"Let's hope it's not locked though…"

Emily took out the museum map and said after a moment, "Top floor."

They started walking up the emergency stairs reaching the first floor, second floor, third, fourth and finally the fifth. The last floor was offices and the conservation room. They walked silently looking around for any infected. They searched the offices but nothing. The conservation door was open and there was no one inside.

Emily let out a sigh of relief.

"We're good" she said.

...

It was night. She just woke up. No dreams, no nightmares. Only hunger. She walked towards their backpacks a bit sleepy and got whatever food they had out. She started eating. Eric was sitting in a chair a bit further away looking at a papyrus. She got up and walked to him.

"It's destroyed" he said with a sigh.

Emily looked at it. "Want some?" she asked holding out the can.

"No thanks."

She sat down opposite of him.

"Do you think Barry made it back?" she asked after a moment.

"I hope so" he replied.

"Me too." she said shaking her head. "It's been nearly three weeks…"

"That shot was deep, but…he'll make it."

_Let's hope_ Emily thought. They didn't have anything to treat him with and the weather wasn't helping him either. He had to go back.

They were sitting a few moments there, Emily eating and Eric thinking of something. Finally he spoke.

"We aren't far away from the zone." he said. "Don't they supposedly have electricity?" he asked Emily.

"Yeah I guess" she said. "Why?"

He raised his shoulders. "I was looking out the window last night. I was hoping to see some lights."

"Maybe it's not visible from here" Emily said.

"Yeah…maybe" he replied.

Emily stood up finishing the food in the can and throwing it on the floor. She walked to a window and looked outside. The rest of the city looked dark. But she couldn't see the whole city anyway. She walked to her backpack, took out an ID and walked back to Eric.

She sat down turning the pages of the ID book. She looked at Eric.

"Do I look like Heather to you?" she asked with a grimace.

"Do I look like Charles?" he replied back.

"Oh, god no!" she chuckled

"Hmm yeah" he chuckled back.

It's been a long time his lips even moved towards a smile.

"So…" Emily continued, "we're gonna have to figure out where to put our weapons before heading in. The military will search us."

"I don't like going in without guns." Eric said. "I told Marlene I'd rather sneak in than go politely through the doors."

"It was a great chance Eric. Those people were heading to the zone anyway…" Emily shook her head. "I just hope they still expect them now."

"Unless the military knows they're dead."

"I don't think so. The truck could have been attacked and the military could have lost contact…" Emily said thinking. "We two could have been the survivors of all those people traveling to the zone."

"Lots of 'could haves'" Eric said.

"It's gonna work" Emily said confidently. "What we have to worry about now, is finding a way to the zone. Barry never crossed to this side of town."

"We'll get there. We always find a way." he said a bit sad and a bit sarcastically. "Lets just hope that doctor's worth it" he added

"He's a biochemist-"

"Whatever" Eric interrupted. "We'll leave tomorrow" he continued. "We'll get there."

...

There was no wind, no rain but it was really cold and the snow was too much on the streets, creating small hills at some parts. It felt quiet though. The stillness of the world made everything seem a bit safer. But there was one thing that bugged them both.

"We should have seen soldiers by now. They usually guard the perimeter" Eric said a bit worried.

"I know" said Emily too. "The zone should be at the next block" she said taking lead through an alley.

"Let's get up on that roof and see what the hell's going on" Eric said.

Emily agreed and they climbed on the emergency stairs of a building heading up. They reached the roof, crouched and headed to the edge. They both peeked over to see.

The zone looked…abandoned.

"Fuck" Eric said. "Fuck, all the fucking zones…"

Emily felt her heart sink. She was really hoping to get there. She was really hoping…she closed her eyes and said in a shaky voice "Let's…uh, let's head in…maybe we can find something useful or something that can lead us to them."

"God dammit" Eric said standing up. "If that fucking guy was for real, his info could have been an answer…fuck."

"Yeah" said Emily looking sad. "Let's…just go."

They headed down the stairs again and walked towards the zone. After a while they reached it, the huge doors in front were open.

"Keep your gun out, there might still be infected inside" Eric said to Emily.

"Don't worry, I got it" she said. They walked through the open space of the zone looking around for any clue. Everything looked broken down, destroyed. Like this zone has been abandoned for a long time.

"Where do you suppose he slept?" Emily asked.

"What?" Eric turned to look at her

"He might have kept any info there" Emily pointed out.

"Well…" said Eric, "it seems like they slept at those camps" he nodded to the left side of the zone.

"Let's go search them" he added.

They crossed over to the camps.

"I'll go left" said Emily, "you go right, that's a lot of camps, let's do it fast."

They split up and started searching. They searched for more than twenty minutes when Eric shouted out. "Got something!"

Emily's heart raced and she ran to him.

"What?" she asked eagerly.

"This is where he stayed. There's nothing really useful but this note here is saying about his workplace up on the second floor in that school" he said nodding over to the building in front. "Maybe there's something there."

"Alright that's something" said Emily hopeful. But then she looked grim. "You notice anything about the camps?" she added asking.

"Yeah…" Eric said. "Too must dust, and they've been searched…this place was gone a very long time ago."

"But how?" Emily asked with a trembling voice and a bit puzzled. "How is this possible?"

"Don't know" Eric said not thinking about it too much. He looked up to the school. Then his face got serious. "Emily" he said. "Third floor"

She looked up. There was a sort of movement behind the windows but it wasn't clear as to what it was.

"Hunters." Emily half asked half stated.

"Hunters." Eric said. "Most probably…" he added.

"Let's stay alert. Come on" Emily said and took lead towards the school. They entered it and headed through the corridor. She could see the abandoned classrooms on the left and right, with blackboards having writing on them and children's paintings on the walls. But she wasn't thinking of anything right now. She just hoped they found something. They went up the stairs to the second floor.

"Shit!" Eric breathed. "Inside!" he whispered pulling Emily by her coat inside a classroom.

"Fucking hunters" she said. They were coming down from the third floor.

"Let's search this floor" one of them said.

"Alright. We got a pretty good load this time didn't we?" another asked.

"We're gonna have to deal with them if we're moving forward." Emily said. She shook her head. They were so close. She felt really uneasy and a bit scared. But she said confidently. "Let's take them out."

Eric nodded. "The classrooms seem to be connected with each other through doors. Let's use that to our advantage."

They walked to the door leading to the next classroom and opened it a bit. "I see two" Emily said. "I got those" she said.

"Alright be careful" Eric said.

"You too."

Emily opened the door while the two hunters had their back turned on it. Eric went back to the door they entered. He was gonna go through the corridor once it was clear.

She stayed crouched and walked hiding behind some desks thrown on their side.

"This class has nothing" one of the hunters said. "Come on" he told the other one.

They were gonna go out to the corridor and Emily took the chance. Once the one was out and turned, she rushed up to the other one before he got out and stabbed him on the side of the throat, closing his mouth with her other hand. He dropped down dead. She heard the other one call his name.

_Damn he's coming back_ she thought.

She closed the door a bit and got behind it grabbing a pencil sharpener from a desk. The hunter came in and saw the other one dead.

"Shit!" he said scared.

Emily threw the sharpener to the hunter's far right and it fell making a small noise. The hunter turned to it and Emily took that chance to come from behind the door stabbing him in the neck. He fell dead too.

Emily stepped behind the door again breathing heavily. _It's done_ she thought.

She crouched and was about to step out from the door when another hunter came in. They looked at each other for a second and the hunter reached behind him and pulled out a gun. Emily rose and slashed his arm before he could turn that gun towards her.

"Motherfuck!" he shouted and while Emily raised her knife again to attack, he jumped at her blocking it and punching her in the face. Emily staggered back, but didn't drop the knife. The hunter reached with one hand to her throat and with the other he grabbed her hand that held the knife. He pushed her back into a table choking her. There was nothing she could do. He slammed Emily's hand, the one holding the knife, onto the table making her drop it.

BAM! a shot went off, and after that more started following.

_They're shooting at Eric_ she thought. She struggled raising her other arm to the hunter's face hitting him but he was a lot bigger than her and the punch didn't really do anything to him. She tried scratching him, her breath starting to go away, but he caught her hand and bit it.

"Urgh!" she moaned in pain. She really had no breath left and there was nothing she could do. Suddenly the hunter let go of her, his blood splashing her on the face and falling dead on her, slipping down.

She reached for her throat coughing. Eric looking wild, placed a hand of her shoulder.

"You okay?" he asked

"Ahmm" she hummed feeling her throat.

"I got them" he said squeezing her shoulder.

She nodded a bit uncontrollably and reached down for her knife. She put it in her back pocket and took out her gun.

"You sure?" she asked in a harsh voice

"Let's see" he said taking lead out the door. They walked until the end of the corridor looking into the classrooms.

"Huh!" he exclaimed. "We're good" he told her.

"Yeah" she closed her eyes a bit more than necessary and then opened them. "Where to?" she asked.

"The note said biology lab. It's a room we passed." They turned back heading into the room.

"Alright lets search-thoroughly" he said.

"Okay" Emily agreed. She started searching eagerly and a bit anxiously. They searched the cabinets, the drawers, the desks, the lockers, everything.

"Ugh, ugh" Emily breathed trying to open a locked locker.

"Need help?" Eric shouted to her.

"Got it!" she shouted back and broke the lock free.

They searched for a few minutes.

"Hey found anything?" he asked her. "Emily?" he asked again when she didn't answer.

"Huh?...uh yeah, um…this is his locker." she replied putting down a note she was reading. "Mr. Zachary…I've got some files here" she said with a shaky voice pulling them out of the locker.

"What do they say?" Eric asked eagerly walking towards her. "Did we find anything?"

"Let me check em out" she said. She turned through the pages. "Um…here take these, help me out" she said handling some notes to Eric.

"Are they understandable?" He asked

"I got the science-y ones, I don't know what those are" she said looking at the ones she handed to Eric.

They read for a few minutes until Eric spoke. "Yeah this seems to be the guy. These notes right here it's his speculation on where it all might have started…"

"Yeah" she said reading hers. "He seems to have made some tests and, well, by the looks of them, the things he found here could be a breakthrough. They talk about a-a possible explanation of how it all started."

"Emily" he said with a smile cracking on his face. "We found it." He got up. "He wasn't bullshitting us after all. Too bad we didn't find him though."

"Yeah" said Emily. She didn't really feel like partying though. She felt sad. "His notes…" she said "the last date he has on them, is from over a year ago. How…why didn't we know about this?" she asked.

"Well, Barry never knew what was happening to this side of town…" Eric said thinking. "I guess Marlene got her info about him too late, but she never knew…it makes sense with how the place looks."

"Huh!" Emily exhaled in frustration. _Fucking great_ she thought. She had a sick feeling in her stomach of disbelief and disappointment.

"Well…" Eric said. "We got what we wanted. We got the info!" he shook his head in disbelief. "This could really be something…finally."

"Hmm" said Emily biting her lip.

"Alright" Eric said turning his back to her "let's search the place, you heard what the hunters said, they found a lot of stuff." He started grabbing and checking out stuff from the room. "We should scrabble enough to keep us going on the way back. We could check that military truck down there too, maybe it still has gas" he added. "But I don't think we'll be that lucky…Emily?" he asked puzzled when she wasn't responding.

He turned to look at her with a look of _what's going on?_

Emily got up, her hands numb, not looking at him. She looked as if she was struggling to speak. She bit her lip angrily.

"I think we should…uh, go after Zachary." She turned to look at him. "He…" she was picking her words carefully, "he might be the only one to know how to fix this. I know that's probably stupid and dangerous and it makes me scared too, but…" she looked at him trying to explain. "This is a breakthrough and he was the only one who figured it out."

He looked at her for a moment reading her face.

"Emily we got what we wanted." he said calmly. "We have our own biochemists, doctors, biologists and whoever else, we can figure this out."

"It makes sense what I'm saying Eric-" Emily said.

"We don't even know where to go!…besides…it's been over a year do you really expect to find him?" Eric interrupted her.

"We, um, there's this note" she said picking up the note she was reading before. "It says here about a possible place up in the mountains he would head up if anything happened."

"Emily, what-" he started. "This is ridiculous. We got what we wanted." he added hastily seeing Emily trying to interrupt him. "We've been through so much and still gotta head back, I'm not going to chase a ghost because of a note."

"Look I believe we should do this right" Emily spat. "This is our-"

"Stop!" he raised his voice at her. She stopped talking, looking miserable and furious. "What the-?" Eric spat. He looked away and shook his head. "Why the fuck don't you tell me what's really going on and cut the bullshit." he said turning to look at her.

"This is what's going on, I'm trying to-"

"No!" he shouted getting closer to her. "Don't, lie to me" he said.

Emily stood still looking at him her eyes getting wet.

"I'm not going back" she said in a small voice.

Eric shook his head. "Why?" he asked throwing his arms open.

Emily seemed to be struggling again, thinking. She looked down on the note she was holding and read:

_This is getting harder for me. The military is putting me under a lot of pressure, treating me like a robot. I work this thing day and night and I'm exhausted. I'm getting somewhere though, I know it. Maybe __they__ can help me out? I'm tired of being a slave._

_Me and Elizabeth are dreaming of the woods up on the mountains. There's this place, I keep telling her, a small scenic resort town, with all the cabins, shops and beautiful waterfalls. I tell her maybe we can live there. That kid smiles every time she's thinking of it. If anything should happen, that's where we'd head. Try to build ourselves a place to stay. It's the best chance for a life…_

Emily stopped reading and folded the note. Eric was staring at her puzzled. She took a moment and then said.

"That girl…Elizabeth" she said with a quiet but hurt voice. "She's…my sister."

Eric looked at her and shook his head. "What-what do you mean your sister?"

"I-" Emily started. "I thought she was…gone" she said her voice trembling. "The day it started…I couldn't find her…." she swallowed hard. "All these years I thought she was gone..." some drops of tears trickled down her face, but she quickly wiped them with her hand. She turned to look at Eric directly in the eyes.

"Until Marlene found out about Zachary… and when she heard that Zachary had an assistant named Elizabeth, Elizabeth Cooper, she told me. Marlene knew that I had a sister, I mentioned it to her…"

There was a moment's silence.

"That's why I came with you here. I was expecting to find her." she said. "I'm not going back" she repeated. "I'm _not_ losing her again"

Eric was looking at her without knowing what to say. "Emily" he started looking at her "I-I, uh…you never told me about her…I'm sorry."

"Eric" she said seriously "I'm not going back I-"

"It's okay" he said. "I know…" he nodded.

She looked at him her eyes pleading somehow. "I need to find her…this note is my only chance."

Eric closed his eyes taking a big breath and said after a moment nodding. "Let's go."

Emily looked at him a bit shocked and shook her head negatively. "No. You gotta go back" she said glancing at the files they found. "I can't ask you for this"

"I'd do the same" he told her.

She considered this for a moment. _What did he mean?_ Then she realized he was thinking of Maggie. If it was her, he'd do the same.

"You will…help me?" she asked.

"I will."


	4. ONE IN A MILLION - JUNE

JUNE

"Uh" Emily exhaled splashing water on her face. "It's cold."

"Yeah it is" said Eric putting his feet in the water.

They were at the bank of a river. After hiking for hours they had to stop.

"You know" Emily started taking off her boots and putting her feet in the water too "now I know why Mr. Zachary wanted to live up here. It's quiet…and beautiful."

"And full of hunters" Eric said.

Emily turned to look at him. "Not everywhere." she said turning to look at the trees. "And nothing we can't handle."

There were a few minutes of silence, only the birds' chirping could be heard and the flow of the river.

"We're close" Eric said. He looked thoughtful. "Emily" he started, "what do you expect us to do if we…find her and the doc?"

Emily didn't like the 'if' in the sentence, but it's not as if Eric wasn't right. She was trying to stay neutral with this. She wasn't hoping for anything. Hope gets you killed. But then again she did come through all of this to get here.

"I guess we…take them back with us." she said. "It's what's best."

"Yeah, and we still gotta get those files back…huh!" he exhaled. "I don't believe that I'm holding in that backpack what could be an answer to all of this" he said.

"It still needs to be processed" Emily said.

"I know" he said. "But still…it's too valuable. Actually the most valuable thing this world probably has."

"You keep it safe then!" Emily said

"Easy for you to say, you're not the one holding it."

Emily didn't answer but she did smile from the inside. She's been getting that feeling more often since the day they started following her sister's trail. And the closer they got, the more she could feel it. But she was anxious too, and had a worried feeling in her stomach. Suddenly controlling emotions was getting hard. But she did try to repress them anyway. Expectations often lead to disappointment.

...

They walked on an uphill deserted road. On their left was the edge of the mountain and on their right they were coming towards a big gas station with a diner.

"You know the drill" Eric told her.

They walked to the store of the gas station and got in.

"I don't think we'll find anything" Emily said. "The locals probably scavenged everything."

"It's worth a try." Eric said and walked to the back of the store. Emily searched for anything at the counter, but there was nothing. Empty drawers, empty stands.

"Nothing here!" she shouted to Eric. "I'll check the diner" she added.

She walked outside and headed towards the diner. There was a big truck with a tank at the back that usually carried gas, parked by the side of the station. Emily knuckled the tank while walking. _Of course_ she thought. It was empty. She walked into the diner. It was dark. The windows were boarded up. She looked around the diner. _Somebody lived here_ she thought. _Or tried to_ she thought once she saw the blood on the floor. She took her knife out of her pocket, for precaution.

She walked around carefully checking things out on the tables, the bar, the storage. It was all empty. Picked clean.

"The locals did good job" she said quietly. She was about to exit the storage when she heard a creak on the floor. The wooden floor was creaking here. She stomped it twice. It was hollow. She removed the rug that covered it and beneath it was a…hatch. A locked one…from the inside. She got up and ran back outside. Eric was heading towards her.

"Nothing in the garage either" he told her.

"I got something" she said nodding for him to follow her. She got back into the diner with Eric and led him to the storage.

"Wanna check it out?" she asked pointing at the hatch.

He looked at it thinking. "Sure but…" he started. He gestured back "the windows, and this being locked from the inside, suggest people might be in, and may not be in their normal form."

"Yeah Sherlock" Emily said nodding sarcastically. "You wanna do this?"

He made a grimace and took out from his backpack a crowbar. He looked at the hatch and stuck the crowbar in the crack. "Found it in the garage" he said trying to break it open. After a moment he did. They kept it closed and took out their guns.

"I'll peek in" he said and crouched. He turned his flashlight on, opened the hatch door and lay on the floor. He leaned his head in, upside down and looked through the opening. He got up after a few seconds and said "Clicker. At least one."

"Hmm" Emily exhaled. "Damn…"

"Let's go quietly, it will be fine" he said seeing her hesitation. "There might be something in there. It's been sealed off, worth the shot."

Emily still looked hesitant. She shook her head. "Okay"

Eric slowly stepped on the stairs and headed down. Emily turned on her flashlight and followed him too. They reached the bottom. It looked like a big basement. There were a lot of things in it. It looked like those people build a home down here. They looked around. That Clicker was the only one in here. Emily took a watch from the table next to her and looked at Eric. He put his gun away and took out the crowbar, getting closer to the Clicker. Once he was close enough Emily threw the watch over the Clicker's head and as if fell down making a noise, the Clicker turned to it. Eric raised his crowbar and smashed it on the back of the head. It dropped dead.

There was a minute of silence while the two of them listened for anything else, but there was nothing. It was just them.

"Alright" Emily whispered "I think we're clear."

"This place looks good enough for a hideout. How did it get so bad?" Eric asked

"I guess everything goes down this road after a while." Emily replied.

"Yeah" Eric said. "Maybe it won't have to once we go back."

Emily nodded but realized Eric couldn't see her head in the dark so she said "Yeah, maybe"

"I'm gonna check this place" she added "and check for any source of light. These people couldn't have lived in the dark" she said reasonably.

"I hear you."

Emily walked over to what looked like a bathroom. They build their own place to shower and wash up. There was soap on a shelf, she took it.

She turned towards a shelf and let out a sigh. "Eric I got lot of cans here!" she shouted out again.

"Grab as many as you can I'll come in a minute."

She opened her backpack and started choosing cans from the shelf and throwing them in. When she got as many as she could she turned to search the rest of the basement. She found a lantern and lit it. Now the place didn't look as dark at least.

It was after a few minutes of searching and scavenging when she shouted once again to Eric.

"What is it?" he shouted back.

"Come over" she said with a disturbed voice.

She turned to look at him once he reached her. There was a sheet on the floor that covered what looked like three bodies. Two of them were small.

Eric looked at it for a few seconds and then looked away walking back to search the rest of the place.

Emily stood over it not looking at it. There was too much pain in the air. _Their_ pain. Even though she lived through things like these, they always stirred her inside. _This is no fate for children._

She turned around and walked towards a corner. There was a motorcycle there and a sheet on the floor that looks like was recently covering it.

"Yeah I saw that too" Eric said walking to her. "It's in good condition" he said. "Looks like these people were using it."

"Wait" Emily started "can we use it then?" she asked hopefully. "You used to ride didn't you? It will get us a lot faster-"

"As much as I'd like to" Eric interrupted "there's no gas in it" he said giving it a small kick.

"Damn" Emily said.

"And there's none to be found in a gas station" he said matter of factly.

"Yeah" she agreed. Gas stations nowadays meant no gas to be found in them. That's where people got all their gas from, and now there's nothing left.

"Got everything?" he asked Emily

"We got a lot" she said. "Let's keep going."

They walked outside from the darkness of the diner to the sunny sky and were about to keep following the road when Emily burst out.

"Wait! I have an idea" she said

"What?" Eric asked.

"That truck" she said looking at the one with the tank. "It might still have gas."

Eric leaned his head on the side looking at her. "That's a lame joke" he said slowly.

"No Eric, I mean the _truck_ might have gas in it!" she corrected herself. "When people have something big in front of them they tend to not look at the details. Would you pick gas from a car if you where at a _gas station?"_ she asked him.

Eric stood looking at her with a grimace. "You got a point." he said thinking about this.

"Search for a hose" Emily said urgently, "let's check it out."

"The garage." he said raising a hand to her "Wait here."

He returned after a minute with a bucket and a hose. He pried open the fill sprout and Emily put the hose down to it. She sucked on the other end of the hose and put it fast in the bucket.

There was gas coming out from it. She looked at Eric smiling.

"Let's get the bike" she said.

...

That bike did a lot of good for them. The drove it up the roads of the mountains and crossed a lot of miles with it faster than they would on foot.

"Over there!" she shouted over the roaring sound of the bike and wind, pointing with her left arm to the highest place of the mountain. "That's the resort town."

"I see it!" yelled Eric back. "We're close. I'm guessing another hour and we'll be there"

_Another hour_ thought Emily. That feeling returned to her stomach. Only this time with fear. What if nothing was waiting for them again?

They turned through steep corners and drove uphill. These turns were awful. They made Emily dizzy.

There was a whooshing sound and suddenly an arrow went through Eric.

"ERIC!" Emily screamed.

He wasn't controlling the bike, he jerked it to the left and they found themselves crashing and falling down a hill their backpacks flying off of them.

Everything was black for what seemed like a long time. Emily heard shouts from somewhere above her. She opened her eyes spitting blood from her mouth. She was on her stomach. She tried getting up but her whole body hurt. More shouts from above. It was coming from up the hill they just fell. _Eric,_ Emily thought. She turned on her side squinting her eyes, looking up the hill through the tall trees. It was a big drop but they rolled over it breaking their fall.

She tried to get up again and saw a small piece of wood stuck in her left arm.

She breathed heavily, sitting up and closed her hand over it. She breathed out small breaths and closed her eyes.

"Ugh!" she tried to shout quietly. She pulled it out. There was blood coming out from it but she didn't care. She looked around for Eric. And there he was, a bit further away from her. She crawled fast to him frightened. He wasn't moving.

"Eric, Eric" she said trembling once she reached him. He was lying half on his stomach half on his side because of the arrow. She turned him to the side. There was too much blood from the wound. She titled his head towards her.

"Eric-Eric please" she was saying with a harsh voice slapping him gently on the face.

"Wake up, please…"

She put her fingers to his throat. No pulse.

"No, no…" she whispered. She put her fingers to his throat again. She held on there for a few more seconds.

"Uh!" she sighed. She felt a weak pulse. She turned her head towards the hill. The men were coming down and in a bit they would see them. She didn't have time. The place they fell to looked like a camping site. There were wooden tables, a playground, small bathrooms…

Emily got up, her body in pain and grabbed Eric by the arms while he was on his side and pulled him as hard and as fast as she could, away from the hill. She wanted to get him into the bathrooms but she didn't have time. Those men were gonna see them. Instead she put him down behind a huge uprooted tree. She got up and ran towards a small bridge throwing herself under it. The men reached the bottom.

_My backpack_ she thought. Everything she had was in there. Except the gun. She looked at the holster and got it out. Four bullets.

_Fuck!_ she said quietly.

There were more than four men though.

"Look around, they can't be far" one of them said.

She tried counting them. She saw six of them. Three with bows and three with guns and bows.

_Son of a bitch_ she thought. _The knife!_ She reached to her back pocket and grabbed it.

But that wasn't much. Six hunters fully equipped against her knife?

She started panicking. They were so close to the resort town. _Fuck, fuck_ she thought. She had to get them out of there. Eric was going to die if she didn't do something with his wound. _We're both going to die_ she thought.

Some hunters were getting closer. She couldn't run now. She waited for them to come.

One passed the bridge and continued walking. Another one crossed the bridge. She decided to attack the one crossing it and when he reached the end of it, she climbed up from below and crouching she got close to him. She rose up and slashed his throat.

The second she did that, she snatched his shotgun from his arms and heard the other man turn around.

"She's here!" he shouted to the others.

Emily ran as fast as she could toward some tables, hearing shots behind her. She jumped over one and stayed behind it. This wasn't going to protect her. She looked around scared to death and decided to get behind the wide tree next to it. This wasn't going to protect her either. They were gonna surround her sooner or later. She held the shotgun steady and frightened but leaned over the tree and then leaned back.

She saw where two of them were. She leaned again and took a quick shot at one. She missed.

She breathed faster and leaned again.

BAM! she shot again and hit him.

"She's got Mike!" another hunter yelled.

"Kill that bitch!" someone yelled back.

More shots were heard hitting the tree. She couldn't turn to shoot now.

"Over there!" a man shouted.

The shots were directed somewhere else.

_Eric?_ she thought panicked. She peeked over the tree. It wasn't Eric. There were some other men from the far side of the camp shooting at the hunters. She took the chance and shot at them too. There were more than six it seemed. But that didn't matter, the men shooting at them helped take them out faster.

After a few minutes there were two left. She got out from behind the tree and ran towards the one with a bow. She raised the shotgun and blasted him with it before he even tried to raise the bow. Emily turned around and saw the other hunter dropping dead too. Whoever those men were, they helped her. She ran as fast as she could to Eric. She kneeled next to him placing her fingers to his throat again. A very weak pulse…but at least there was one. She sighed, her heart beating fast and rose up turning around with the shotgun, towards the men that where coming her way.

There was one behind her already. He grabbed the gun and tried to take it from her. She held on tight and hit him with her head. He staggered back falling on his back holding onto the gun. She fell with him too, on top of him as she was still holding the shotgun too.

"Let go!" she screamed trying hard to snatch it from him.

Another man reached them and raised his rifle to her face.

She looked at him her heart missing a beat.

"No-NO! she yelled and then everything went black.

...

"You're lucky that arrow didn't hit anything vital" a female voice was saying.

"He'll be fine now. He's had worse."

Eric was waking up. He opened his eyes a bit, still sleepy.

"Eric?" Emily asked

He looked at her feeling disoriented and opened his eyes wider.

"Emily" he said in a very harsh and quiet voice. He looked around. They were in a room that looked like a hospital room, but it wasn't. There was Emily and…another woman.

He tried to sit up.

"Take it easy" Emily said. "You're hurt."

"I noticed" he said but sat up anyway. He touched his wound and looked up. "Who attacked us?" he said a bit worried.

"These people helped us" Emily said smiling, looking over at the woman and the whole place generally. "It was just some hunters-"

"I don't remember much" he said.

"You had an arrow shot into you but you'll be fine" the woman said. "Nothing dangerous just loss of blood."

"And you are?" Eric asked.

Emily looked at her smiling again and turned to Eric. "Eric…this is my sister. Elizabeth."

He looked at Emily with disbelief. "Really?"

"Really" Elizabeth said.

"Holy shit" Eric whispered.

"I understand" Elizabeth said. "No reason to think I was alive." She turned to Emily. "I'll go get Dr. Paolo."

Emily nodded and Elizabeth stepped out from the room.

Eric looked at Emily. "You're okay?"

"I'm okay" she said. "I woke up this morning" she said pointing at the bed opposite of his. "We slept the night here."

"_Here_…we're here." he said.

"We are" Emily said in disbelief. She shook her head. "We got lucky…these people saved us" she said a bit excited. "Eric, they have built their own little village here."

Eric looked out of the window but they weren't on the first floor so he couldn't see.

"They're protected?" he asked. "A place in the woods, I don't imagine it being that safe."

"Well they're still here" Emily said raising her shoulders.

Elizabeth walked in with the doctor. The doctor reached Eric and looked at him. "How are you feeling?"

"I hate that question" Eric said.

"I know it's a silly question for the patient" the doctor said smiling, checking Eric's serum, "but I need to see that everything is as it should."

"Huh" Eric exhaled, "I guess…I'm a bit dizzy? Tired…the wound hurts."

"Alright…you have nothing to worry about Eric! You'll be fine in no time. I'll tell Maria to bring you food and you're gonna have to stay in bed for a few days to restore your health."

"But-" Eric started.

"No buts Eric" Emily interrupted him. "We're safe here." She turned to look at Elizabeth and then back at Eric. "You'll be ok by your own?"

"Yeah yeah" he said waving his hand.

Emily and Elizabeth walked out from the room to the corridor. The building they were using as a hospital was an old motel. Emily could see some people inside of the rooms. They walked down the stairs and out of the building. The sun hurt Emily's eyes. The streets looked busy. She hasn't seen anything like this for a very long time. She felt for a moment as if everything was back to normal. There were children running, people carrying things, working, some others just sitting at small tables enjoying the day.

_Enjoying the day_ she thought. _Was this even possible?_

She turned to look at Elizabeth. She was smiling at her.

"Whoa!" Emily said looking behind Elizabeth. There was a horse with a carriage coming towards them.

"You have a horse?" she asked.

"Lots of them" Elizabeth said. "Let us continue our little tour" she said with a funny voice gesturing Emily forward.

"This is a-nice place" Emily said walking.

"There's shops, families, we have our own crops and even electricity." said Elizabeth. "It took us a lot of time to make the town safe."

"So is it-safe?"

"Most of the time. Our men do a good job chasing off hunters. And the infected are at a very minimum up here so…it's good. It's better" she added.

"Better than the zones?" Emily asked

"No question!" Elizabeth said.

"Yeah just…" Emily said looking around "it's not really…closed off. I mean" she said hastily "not to insult your work but, uh, I've seen a lot of quarantine zones get destroyed, left abandoned" she said seriously.

"We're fighting it" Elizabeth said. "Whatever happens." she said turning to look at her, "Here we have lives."

"Hmm…" said Emily shaking her head. "I guess I don't really believe in that anymore" she said a bit quietly.

"Living?" Elizabeth asked. "What is this then?" she said waving her hands around smiling. "This is exactly what this is."

Emily had difficulty answering. "I, uh-I guess we disagree."

"Alright sis, how about I convince you?" Elizabeth turned to her smiling

"Huh!" Emily chuckled.

"Let's continue" Elizabeth said.

They walked on the street. It was a plaza. Left and right were broken down taverns, souvenir shops, kiosks, all used for something else now. Emily saw different people here. There was a different…aura. A more hopeful one.

"What's with the shops" Emily asked looking around.

"It's not exactly shops with the regular meaning." Elizabeth answered. "People have responsibilities and work. Everyone is helping out their own way. We're exchanging food, clothing, equipment. That way we can keep account of everything we have and people get what they need."

"That…requires-" Emily started

"Trust?" Elizabeth finished her sentence. She nodded her head. "We have good people here" Elizabeth said. "We trust each other, otherwise it wouldn't work."

They walked for a few minutes reaching the end of the street.

"This is where I'm staying, along with some other people" Elizabeth said looking over at a small green house on the left.

Emily nodded.

"Come on through the woods up ahead" Elizabeth said and took lead.

"We keep our horses here" she said nodding up ahead. Emily looked at the cliff of the mountain were the horses were tied. They walked towards them Elizabeth patting one.

"This one's mine" she said smiling.

"Hmm" said Emily smiling too. "So you-?"

"I get out of town, help scavenge food with other men and women."

"How did you get so many by the way?" Emily asked. "You're all from the zone?"

"Not all…no" Elizabeth said looking at the ground. "Some people we found on the way, some people up on the mountains and some people left us."

"And Mr. Zachary?" Emily asked.

Elizabeth's eyes turned sad suddenly. "He…didn't make it."

"Oh…" Emily said quietly. "I'm sorry."

Elizabeth didn't answer. Her eyes got wet but she shook her head. "Come here" she said gesturing her at the end of the cliff. There was a wooden railing. She held onto it and looked down. Emily joined her. It was very high. There was a huge lake at the bottom and on the opposite side of where they were standing was a big waterfall.

"See there?" Elizabeth said pointing down. She was pointing at some crops near the lake. "They continue into the woods on the left" she added.

Emily looked. There were some people tending them. "Yeah" she said.

"Those people take care of the growth of the crops and their safety…huh!" Elizabeth exhaled. "Can you feel the breeze?" she asked Emily closing her eyes.

"I do" Emily replied. It was coming from the waterfall. She looked at her sister for a moment. "I'm proud of you" she said in a small voice.

Elizabeth turned to look at her.

"You-" Emily started. "You accomplished something big here and well…you're still alive" she said matter of factly.

Elizabeth smiled. "I didn't do all this" she said gesturing towards the village. "All of us did."

"Yeah well" Emily said. "You're all grown up anyway."

"Huh!" Elizabeth chuckled. "Take it easy sis you're not much older than me."

"I'm still your big sis" Emily laughed a bit. "And I…I've been through some…terrible things." she said looking at the ground her smile fading. "Makes me feel a lot older than I should be."

Elizabeth looked at her concerned. "Is that why-"

"Yeah and, no" Emily interrupted turning to look at her. "Don't-"

"Ok I won't…I promised" Elizabeth said hastily.

There was a moment's silence.

"Emily I…I'm sorry I left…back in Austin. I didn't know what to do. Mr. David saw what happened and…well…I wouldn't make it without him…"

"No reason to apologize" Emily said. "I'm glad you left. You're alive." She reached towards her and grabbed her shoulder. Nodding she said "I found you."

"Yeah" Elizabeth said her eyes getting wet again. "I never thought I'd see you again."

"Me too" Emily replied quietly.

They stood there watching the water fall down, the breeze blowing through their hair.

"I love it here" Elizabeth finally said. "It's all worth it." She turned to look at Emily suddenly. "How did you find us?" she asked puzzled.

"Oh, yeah, that. Uh-" Emily started

"You know…how about we talk about it over dinner tonight?" Elizabeth said changing her mind. Then she said her tone getting lighter "I believe you hadn't had a bath for a long time" she said looking at Emily teasingly.

Emily turned to her armpit.

"Yeah yeah it's awful" she teased more.

"Alright" Emily said with a grimace.

"Let me introduce you to the wonders of the lake" Elizabeth said and walked away downhill.

"What-right now?" Emily shouted to her

"What's wrong with now?" Elizabeth shouted back.

Emily stood there for a few seconds thinking of how rare she had baths. Elizabeth looked as if she had all the time in the world for that. _What the hell_ she thought raising her shoulders and followed her sister.

...

"So…?" Elizabeth started smiling to Emily. "Did you enjoy it?"

"It was…healing" Emily replied. "And freezing, it was freezing."

"Haha yeah you'll get used to it" Elizabeth laughed.

They were walking back to the village through the woods down where the lake was.

"Liz…" Emily turned to look at her. "I-I didn't come here to stay."

"What?" Elizabeth stopped to look at her. "Why?"

"I came to get you. To go back." Emily said.

"Back _where_?" Elizabeth asked tilting her head to the side as if not taking this seriously and started walking.

"To the zones" Emily replied.

"Huh!" Elizabeth chuckled. "You are joking right?"

"No, no I'm not."

"Sis-"

"But I can't ask you to leave" Emily interrupted. She stopped walking and put her hands on her waist looking around. "I know I can't. You…have created a home here." she said looking at her sister seriously. "But I can try convincing you."

"Not going to work sis."

"How long do you think you can protect the place?" Emily asked.

"As long as it takes" Elizabeth replied.

"What kind of life do you want to have?" Elizabeth asked in return.

"Whatever life this world offers." Emily answered.

"It can offer a lot more than what we've seen."

Emily shook her head silently looking down on the ground. "Let's agree to disagree then" she said.

"Sure, let's do that" Elizabeth said and took lead. "Come on let's hike up" she added.

After some time they reached the village.

"I was supposed to head outside with a group today." Elizabeth said. "We were gonna head to another village far from here search for supplies-"

"Sorry" Emily interrupted.

"Don't be stupid!" Elizabeth said. "We'll go tomorrow morning" she told her. "Look…it's going to go dark soon. Why don't you head back to your friend and I'll come afterwards. I have to check our supplies list" she added quietly. "Should have done that hours ago but…"

"Yeah do what you gotta do" Emily told her.

"Dinner will be ready by eight, I'll come get you by then" Elizabeth said walking away.

Emily waved goodbye to her and started walking towards the motel. "Huh!" she exhaled. _Dinner_ she thought happily. She reached Eric's room and knocked on the door.

"Come in" she heard him calling.

"Hey" Emily said.

"Oh it's you" Eric said sitting up. He looked at her for a moment a bit puzzled. "You look…clean."

"Huh yeah I uh, had a bath." Emily said sitting on the opposite bed.

"Uh huh" he said. "Catching up with Elizabeth?"

"I am" Emily said happily. "And how are you?"

"A lot better. I got rest. The only thing that hurts now is the wound"

"Mmm I'm glad to hear that. Eric I'm-I'm sorry about, you know, this" she gestured to his wound.

"I'm still alive" he said. "And you found your sister. That's-that's enough for me." he said a bit sad.

Emily nodded.

"But what I'm really glad for, is that the files are not lost" he said nodding towards their backpacks on a chair in the corner.

"Oh yeah" Emily said. Truth was she completely forgot about them.

"Is Zachary here too?" Eric asked.

"Mmm" Emily shook her head negatively. "No he…didn't make it. Liz told me."

"Damn…" Eric said. "He could have been really useful."

There was a knock on the door and an elderly woman opened it.

"Emily?" she asked.

"Yes?"

"Elizabeth told me to let you know that you'll be eating dinner at her house. She's not to going to make it up and she'll meet you there after eight."

"Okay, thank you" Emily said.

The woman nodded and left.

Emily turned to look at Eric and suddenly had an idea. "Wait here" she told him getting up and walking to the door.

"Yeah" Eric said looking at his wound. "Yeah I'm not going-" he said sarcastically.

Emily walked out of the room and searched the corridors, the rooms until she found Dr. Paolo at what was once a reception and now an office.

"Dr. Paolo?" she started.

"Hello Emily. Can I help you?" he asked not looking at her but at some papers on the desk.

"Can uh, can Eric move?" she asked

"No…not really" Paolo said looking up.

"Can he sit in a wheelchair?"

"He's better lying down." Paolo said. "Is there a place he needs to be?"

"Well we'll be eating dinner at Elizabeth's…I thought he wouldn't want to stay here alone."

"He needs to be laid still."

"Hmm" Emily said disappointed.

Paolo looked at her for a moment and said. "If you find him a bed to rest at Elizabeth's I'll bring him down to you."

Emily smiled to him. "Of course" she said.

...

They were eating dear with potatoes. Eric was half lying half sitting on the bed in the corner and next to him was the table everybody else sat. It was Elizabeth, Emily, that elderly woman whose name was Martha, a guy named John and his ten year old son.

Emily was eating way too fast. She hasn't had any normal food for a very long time.

"You might wanna take it easy" John said looking at her with a grimace. "Otherwise you'll be heading to our little hospital with your friend over there" he nodded towards Eric.

"That's where I'm sleeping anyway so…" Emily said.

"Oh I thought you'd stay here, with us" Elizabeth said.

"Um" she glanced at Eric. She didn't want to leave him by himself after what he's been through, even though she'd love to spend more time with her sister.

"It's ok" Elizabeth said hastily. "Wherever you wish."

"Hey kiddo you don't want that-" John was saying to his son.

"So…" Elizabeth started "how did you end up here?" she asked both Emily and Eric.

Emily swallowed and turned to her. "Huh, well we…found the zone. It was, abandoned and we decided to search it. We found a note talking about a resort town up in the mountains and so we thought you'd be here."

"You took a very brave decision to come all the way up here" Martha said.

"Yeah well it was our only lead" Emily replied. "We also found Mr. Zachary's files…" she said slowly to Elizabeth.

"You have them?" Elizabeth said with disbelief.

Emily nodded.

"Oh my god" Elizabeth said. "I thought they were gone. We didn't have time for anything when we left. We had to leave everything behind…I don't believe it" she said shaking her head.

"How could you leave _that_ behind?" Eric asked.

"We didn't have a choice" Elizabeth told him. "And we couldn't go back. I-I kind of hoped the military got them at least…"

"_We_ did" Eric said. "And we're gonna take them back with us, there's uh, some people who might know what to do with them."

"You mean the Fireflies" Elizabeth half asked half stated.

"So…you know…" Eric said.

"Well that's half the reason our men didn't kill you out there." Elizabeth said.

"What's the other half?" Eric asked.

"We try to identify the good people" John spoke. "I was one of those guys out there" he explained. "We don't shoot everybody, there's still some good people left you know" he said taking a bite from the dear "and you did look like you needed help" he looked at Emily.

"Thanks" she told him.

He raised his glass to her and then took a sip.

"Daddy" the child said trying to cut the meat.

"Here" John said taking the knife.

Emily looked at the boy. She suddenly remembered those two small bodies they found at that basement with Eric. A feeling of unease went through her, a feeling she hasn't felt all day.

"Well I'm done" said Martha and rose up with her plate. "I'll see you in the morning" she said and took off. The others bid her goodnight.

Elizabeth looked at Emily. "What took you so long to get to the zone?"

"We didn't know anything about you or Mr. Zachary until a few months back." Emily explained. "I don't know why the info got to us so late. There must have been some sort of mistake…"

"We were waiting for the Fireflies to come…" she said. "Zachary waited for them." She shook her head. "They really treated him bad."

"So you were close to him?" Eric asked.

"Yes I helped him out with things he needed done and some of his experiments. It was just me and him working. Ha!" she half-laughed. "I had no idea what I was doing…but he trusted me and I think he was glad for the company." She looked a bit sad saying this. He obviously meant something to her.

"Hmm" Eric said.

Emily didn't know what to say. She was just glad her sister had someone she could trust in the zone.

"So tomorrow I'll be heading to that village I told you" Elizabeth told Emily.

"I'll be going too" John said.

"Daddy are you going again?" the boy asked.

"Oh don't worry buddy, I'll be back before you know it."

The boy dropped his fork in his plate looking worried and sad.

John put an arm around his shoulders. "I always come back don't I?" he said. "Martha will take care of you and I'll come back with lots of food and I _promise_ to bring you a gift" he said with a wink.

"Promise?" the boy asked.

"Of course!" John said rubbing his son's head

"Dad!" The boy said annoyed but laughing.

Emily looked at them with a look of wonder. She hasn't heard a child laugh since the outbreak. She actually hasn't seen many kids since the outbreak…not alive at least.

"Yeah" said Elizabeth smiling, "so we'll be going at dawn and it's gonna take a couple of days. You can make yourselves at home-"

"I'm coming with you" Emily said.

"No need for that-" Elizabeth started.

"Actually why not?" John asked. "We could use the extra hand…I've seen her shoot" he added glancing at Emily smiling.

"Wait whoa" Eric said "Emily no, it could be dangerous and really we need to get going once I heal" he looked both at Emily and Elizabeth.

"I'm not going back with you" Elizabeth said seriously

"What-" Eric started

"Okay hold on-" Emily said

"Wait no, what do you mean, we came here-"

"Yes I know but-"

"Okay both of you, hold your horses" Emily said raising her voice a bit so she could be heard. "Now you" she said again normally to Elizabeth "stand by and you" she said to Eric "we'll talk later okay?"

Eric opened his mouth to say something but closed it again.

"Well uh" spoke John "I'm done too" he said getting up. "See you tomorrow" he said to Elizabeth and nodding to the others he and his son went to their room.

"We have apples" Elizabeth said after a minute.

"What?" Eric asked.

"Apples, wild ones, we grow them. They're still a bit raw but, here" she got up and went towards the kitchen's counter and threw one to Emily and brought one back to Eric.

"I can catch too." Eric said sarcastically.

"No you can't" Elizabeth said smiling.

"Man" Emily said looking at the apple. "This is rare" she said holding it up to her nose smelling it.

"So you" Eric started "kinda have everything here" he said a bit amazed and bit the apple.

"We try" Elizabeth said. "When you'll be able to walk I'll show you around, I think you'll like it."

"Maybe" he said chewing. "But still, I don't think I fit here." he said. "And those files need to be delivered."

"Yes they do" said Emily turning to Elizabeth. "Mr. Zachary has unearthed important information, his research is bringing something new to the knowledge we already have on this disease. Liz this could be something big."

"I know" Elizabeth said. "He really worked hard on it." she said but not too joyfully.

Eric turned to Emily. "Time to go?" he asked.

"Sure…Liz" she nodded to her "let's get him back."

"Thanks for the food and well, everything" Eric said to Elizabeth.

"Anytime" she said and she and Emily stood up to help get Eric to his room at the hospital.

...

"How are we getting to that village of yours?" Emily asked walking with her sister on the street.

The sun was just coming out and it gave a beautiful orange color to the horizon. Minus the outbreak and plus the tall trees, the chirping of birds and sound of the river, they could as well be on vacation.

"Remember those horses" Elizabeth asked.

"Wait we're riding horses?" Emily asked a bit puzzled. "I don't know how to ride a horse."

"Don't worry about it, it's nothing" John said to Emily. He was walking with them too.

"You can ride with me" Elizabeth said "if it makes you feel safer."

"It actually makes me feel worse, I mean-" she said looking at her sister's face. "where am I supposed to sit?"

"You hold on to me tight and you'll be fine" Elizabeth said.

They reached the end of the cliff where the horses were. There were four other people waiting for them too.

"Morning" they said to each other.

"Emily" said Elizabeth "this is part of our group. This is Michael, Tom, Jess and Laura." she said looking at each one of them.

Emily nodded to them.

"Nice to meet you Emily!" said Jess and Laura.

"You too!"

"You ready to go?" John asked them.

"Yeah let's go" Michael said and reached a horse to sit on it. The others turned to their horses too but Tom talked to Emily.

"Hey sorry about the-" he was pointing at the bruise on her face.

"It was you" Emily said remembering him.

"Yeah, had to."

"Yeah" she chuckled. "Don't worry about it, I'm glad you didn't shoot me" she said matter of factly.

He gave her thumbs up and walked to his horse too.

"Sis" Elizabeth said, she was already on her horse. "Jump on!"

"Huh!' Emily exhaled and climbed up the horse, sitting behind Elizabeth.

"Okay keep formation" Michael shouted to them and took lead. "We're gonna stop at some cabins in between, maybe there's something there too."

They rode off, Elizabeth's horse in the rear.

They crossed through the streets and reached the 'wall' of the village. Some men guarding it let them out and they continued riding down the road. The rode for a bit and then Elizabeth slowed down pointing somewhere far up.

"This is our other base" she told Emily.

"Other base?" she asked.

"Yeah we have another small village closed off. It's further uphill. There's people living in it too."

"That's good thinking" Emily said. "If anything happens to one base you can always get away to the other."

"Yeah it _is_ good thinking, we haven't thought of that!" Elizabeth smiled. "No, we actually use some other facilities it has. There's a small hospital, a police station…"

Elizabeth turned to look at Emily with a wide smile. "When we get back, there's someone I want you to meet" she said happily.

"Who?" asked Emily curious.

"Oh no I'm not telling you!" she chuckled. "It's a surprise. She's up that other base" Elizabeth explained.

"Who-"

"Don't ask, I won't tell you! And don't try ruining the surprise."

"Okay, okay" Emily replied defeated.

Elizabeth picked up speed and they followed the others. They rode downhill following the road and its steep turns. Emily didn't feel dizzy this time but she wasn't a fan of horse riding either. The rode for hours, stopping sometimes to get rest from riding. They rode through the woods, through shallow rivers, through the roads…

Michael up ahead slowed down and so did the rest. "There're the cabins down this hill" he said. "Let's get to them."

They rode over a dirt road downhill and reached the cabins. They climbed down their horses and tied them to some trees.

"You know what to do" said Michael to them and they split up to search different parts of the place.

"So any specific supplies we're looking for?" Emily asked Elizabeth.

"Our goal is to find gas up that village for our generators, but get whatever else useful you can find" Elizabeth answered her.

"Alright" Emily said.

"Okay stay with me" Elizabeth told Emily, taking out her gun.

"Huh!" Emily chuckled, "be careful with that" Emily told her sarcastically looking at the gun she was holding.

"You'd be surprised" Elizabeth told her giving her a look.

Emily smiled and took out her knife.

"It'd be better if we split up actually" Emily told her. "But stay close. I'll be at the opposite cabin" she added.

"Ok be careful" Elizabeth told her worried.

"You too."

Emily walked towards one cabin on the left while Elizabeth took the one on the right. The others were in the cabins up ahead.

They looked deserted but Emily knew better. She crouched down and reached for the door. It was locked. She peeked through the nearby window and jumped in through it. It was a small one and she couldn't hear anything. There were only two rooms. The main room with the bed and the toilet. She stood up and reached the door of the toilet and opened it fast.

"Ugh!" she exhaled looking away. There was someone in there dead and it smelled horrible.

She turned around to search the cabin. Everything looked in place. She searched the drawers, the cabinet but there wasn't anything useful. She got out through the window again and walked to another bigger cabin. She took a glimpse at her sister on the other side and then opened the door slowly.

"Shit" she whispered. There were two Clickers inside. She peeked in to check the room.

"Huh" she said looking at the axe hanging by the door inside. She put her knife away and took the axe. It was in good condition. She slowly went a few steps back and took a rock from the ground. Emily threw it just outside the door.

The Clickers heard it. They turned around abnormally and walked towards it. Once they both got out from the door, Emily stuck the axe into the one that got out last and as the other one turned around to face her, she cut off its head. They both dropped down dead.

Emily looked up her heart beating a bit faster and saw Elizabeth on the other side looking at her scared to death. Emily nodded to her in a way that it was all okay.

Elizabeth shook her head looking worried but continued.

Emily turned around and went inside the cabin. It seemed that people lived in this one. She searched the place but quickly went to their suitcases. They were still locked. She broke the locks and opened them. No food but there were a couple of flashlights, clothes, boots, and climbing equipment. Emily packed everything useful. This was a good find. She got up and went outside.

"DUCK!" Jess shouted. Emily thought it was for her and her heart stopped for a second but then she saw Michael running out from a cabin with a Runner behind him.

Michael ducked and Jess took a shot with her rifle killing the Runner. Emily ran towards them looking around quickly for anyone or anything else.

"Are you alright?" Laura asked Michael reaching him too.

"Yeah, goddamn I thought I only saw one in there" he said breathing fast.

"We need to move-fast" John said. "Someone might have heard this" he told them.

"Check the outside area" Elizabeth said "and let's keep moving." She glanced at Emily and walked to the other side.

They split up again searching the place fast. After a couple of minutes Michael shouted to them. "Okay that's enough, let's keep going."

They rushed to their horses and rode again uphill back to the road that was leading to the village. They rode for a couple of hours when the saw the village up ahead. They reached it getting further in.

"Okay we stop here" Michael told them. "It's gonna get dark in a while, you know what to do" he said climbing down his horse.

Emily and Elizabeth climbed down their horse too. "What exactly are we doing now?" Emily asked her.

"We're gonna find us a place to stay for the night" Elizabeth answered her. "We split in two, search around and someone stays back with the horses. Jess stays this time."

"Okay let's go" Emily told her. "Wait!" she said stopping Elizabeth. "See that place up there on that hill?" she asked pointing.

"Yeah good vantage point too" Elizabeth said. "Okay guys" she called to the rest "We're heading up there. We meet back here in half an hour!"

Everybody else nodded and went on their way.

"Ok we do this fast and carefully." Elizabeth told Emily.

"I know" Emily replied.

They started walking going behind some houses. Emily took out the rifle Elizabeth gave her in the morning.

"You handled yourself well back there" Elizabeth told Emily after a while turning to look at her.

Emily saw a glimpse of sadness behind her eyes. "I've had practice" she said. "And I…I guess you had too" she said looking at Elizabeth's gun.

"Unfortunately" she replied shaking her head. "Huh, let's hope that building is clear" she continued. "I don't want to have to deal with anything."

"Liz" Emily started "you should come back with us. Me and Eric. Look I understand-"

"No you don't" Elizabeth interrupted. "Look now's not the time to talk about it."

"I can't leave you" Emily admitted. "I can't just get up and leave you behind. I'm not losing you again."

"Then stay" Elizabeth said. "Stay here I know you liked it-"

"I can't do that. We need to get those files back. Liz you know how important they are, to all of us" Emily said. "And besides, it's really dangerous outside the zones…even Zachary would want-"

"Stop" said Elizabeth looking at her serious. She stopped walking.

"Sorry, okay" Emily said hastily. "But-"

"Let's continue this when we get back alright?" said Elizabeth and started walking looking a bit sad.

Emily didn't say anything else. She really wanted to be with her sister but she didn't look easy to convince. She still had days though…

They reached the building up the hill. Emily turned around and looked at the village below. This was a good spot. She turned back to her sister. "Okay, seems like this is a hotel and I bet the last floor is a restaurant, see the balcony?" she nodded to the last floor.

"Yeah" said Elizabeth.

"We need to split up" Emily continued "You go through this front door and I find a back door." Elizabeth looked hesitant about this.

"Trust me I know what I'm saying" Emily reassured her. "Go quietly, go fast and stay alert. I expect infected." she said looking at the building.

"Be careful sis" Elizabeth told her and patted her gently on the back.

"You too" Emily whispered and walked around the hotel searching for another way in. She found some locked doors leading in. _Damn it_ she thought.

She walked towards a window and looked in. It was dark. There was a small dance floor and a bar and everything looked still. She broke the window with the back of her rifle and went in.

"Aagh!" she shouted. Someone hit her with their gun on the head and she fell down on her stomach, feeling a bit dizzy.

"I got you" the man said and took her by the hair. She tried reaching for the rifle on the floor but she couldn't.

"Ugh!" she groaned again as he raised her head and punched her. She fell down again moaning in pain, seeing black dots. He grabbed her backpack and stepped on her back firmly.

"Let's see what you got." he said playfully checking her backpack.

Emily tried to get up but he stomped her hard on the back.

"Stay down." he said angrily.

Emily couldn't move. She panicked and thought of Elizabeth. _What if they got to her too?_ She suddenly realized that she still had her gun in her holster. The man was busy checking the backpack. She reached for it slowly and quickly took it out of the holster. She turned her arm weirdly towards the man and shot hoping she hit him. And she did. He staggered back dropping her backpack and hit a table behind him. Emily turned around on her back and aimed her gun towards him. She shot again, killing him.

Emily got up fast feeling her lip that had blood on it. She picked up her backpack and rifle thinking about finding Elizabeth when she burst through the door and yelled panicked "Hunters!"

Emily run towards the small corridor on the left grabbing Elizabeth by the hand on the way and started climbing up the stairs.

"They're coming up!" a man shouted from below.

_Coming?_ Emily thought. _There's more upstairs_ she realized. They were already on the second floor and were ready to go up the third when a hunter burst through the door. He didn't see them because the door blocked his view and they were behind it. Emily took the chance and pushed it hard, hitting him.

"Go up!" she yelled to Elizabeth. "NOW!"

Elizabeth obeyed reluctantly and Emily let go of the door taking her gun out and walking up the stairs backwards.

The hunter opened it again and Emily shot him in the head before he could do anything. She saw more hunters behind the shot one running towards her, and she turned and ran up upstairs.

"LIZ!" she shouted going up to the top floor hoping that that's where she went. She got into the restaurant. Those hunters where gonna be here in a few seconds. She closed the double doors and looked around.

"Shit!" she said taking the rifle from her back and inserting it into the door handles firmly. The hunters reached the door and tried to open it but they couldn't. Emily, her heart racing felt safe for a second.

"Drop it" someone from behind shouted to her "and don't think about doing anything stupid"

Emily dropped her gun and turned around slowly, panicked.

A hunter was holding Elizabeth in front of him, his arm around her throat and a gun pointed at her.

"Open the doors" he ordered her.

"No don't-" Elizabeth screamed.

"Shut up bitch" he said closing his grip on her throat.

"Don't, don't!" Emily said frightened. "Okay…okay" she was saying, taking steps back to open the doors.

Suddenly Elizabeth bit the hunters arm and pushed away his other one that held the gun. The hunter screamed in pain and threw Elizabeth on the floor. He pointed his gun at her

BAM! he dropped dead.

Emily picked the gun from the floor and shot him. She ran to Elizabeth.

"Are you alright, did he hurt you?" she asked her scared.

"I'm okay, I'm okay" Elizabeth said grabbing Emily's hand and getting up. "How do we get out of here?" she asked frightened looking at the double doors.

"Look around-fast!" Emily said getting out on the balcony. No emergency stairs and no way down.

"Nothing in here" Elizabeth shouted from inside.

_Fuck_ Emily thought.

"Okay okay" she said reaching Elizabeth. She crouched down and opened her backpack. She searched inside and took out a smoke bomb and a grenade.

"What are those?" Elizabeth asked.

"Our way out" Emily replied getting up. "I'll go open the doors-wait!" she said seeing Elizabeth about to interrupt, "this is a smoke bomb" she said raising the hand holding it. "I'll open the doors and stay behind them, throw it and they go blind. You" she said handling her the grenade "throw this at their feet-as soon as the smoke bomb explodes."

Elizabeth took the grenade and shook her head scared. "I don't like this-what about you?"

"I'll get out of the way-promise" Emily said. "Come on!" she said and went to the doors. She stood by the side and grabbed the rifle. She turned to look at Elizabeth and nodded. She nodded back and Emily pulled the rifle. The hunters got in.

"Find them" one of them said.

Emily threw the smoke bomb and it exploded.

"Fuck I can't see!" a hunter shouted. Emily ran to the left and jumped behind a table. Seconds later the grenade exploded. There were screams, there were things flying and the force of the bomb pushed Emily on her back. Then there was silence. She stayed on her back for a few seconds listening. She could hear some hunters moaning and growling in pain. Then she heard footsteps and a few shots. The moanings stopped. She couldn't see anything. She got up slowly raising the rifle. Elizabeth appeared from the smoke.

"Lets get out of here" she said with a trembling voice.

Emily couldn't hear anyone else. "Okay let's go." They ran down the stairs, down to the ground floor and just stepped out the hotel when Michael, John and Laura came running at them

"Elizabeth!" Michael shouted "RUN-hunters."

Elizabeth and Emily needn't tell a second time. They turned around and ran as fast as they could past the hotel down the hill it was build on.

The others were right behind them and they could hear shouting from way back. They were running down the hill for a while when shots were heard from behind them. The hunters started shooting at them.

Emily jumped down over a steep part of the hill and turned around to see if Elizabeth was following. But then she saw a pipe coming from out the hill, some water pouring out of it. It looked like the entrance to it was cut open.

_Sewers_ she thought. "Over here!" she yelled to the others. Everybody reached her in a second and she ran inside the pipe, the others behind her. The pipe after a while turned into a corridor and then to many corridors. Emily just ran at whichever her body chose for quite some time, until they reached a dead end.

"Up the ladder-go!" she said breathlessly standing by its side to let the others go first. Elizabeth started climbing it, then Laura, Michael, John and finally Emily.

She reached the top and saw Michael dropping a metal cabinet on the floor

"Help me" he said to John and together they pushed it over the hole where the ladder was and then sat on it breathing fast. It seemed like they were safe for now. They were in an empty room that had a corridor leading somewhere. Elizabeth came over to Emily and hugged her.

Emily felt a bit safer in her arms. She pushed her gently away and looked around at the others.

"Where's Jess" she asked. They others didn't answer. "Tom?"

"Where are they?" Elizabeth asked too.

"They…got Jess" John said quietly. "By the horses."

"My god!" said Elizabeth

"I got separated with Tom" Laura said quietly. "I don't know where he is…"

"What happened?" Elizabeth asked them hastily.

"There were hunters. A lot of them. Goddamn it" John said looking away "They must have holed up in this village and we just jumped into their little trap" he said angrily standing up.

For a minute they were all silent.

"We should never have come to this place" Elizabeth said looking guilty.

"We couldn't have known" John replied putting his hand on her shoulder. "We just gotta find a way out now."

"Well I think they lost us" said Michael looking at the metal cabinet he was sitting on. "But I wouldn't risk getting back."

"If we are getting out of here we need our horses" Laura said. "It will take us days to get back without them."

"She's right" Michael agreed.

"How-how are we getting them back the hunters probably got them by now" Elizabeth said looking around "and we still have to find a way out of this place."

"What is this place anyway?" Laura asked. "Does this look like sewers to you?"

"I wouldn't know" Michael said.

"What else could it be?" John asked

"I don't give a damn" Michael said getting up "We just need to find an exit"

"Wait Laura's right" Emily said. "So many corridors and pipes under a village? What would they need with that?"

"I don't know and I don't care" Michael repeated.

"Wait!" Emily said again thinking. "I think I know what this is" she said slowly and a bit scared looking on the wall above the corridor. There was a government symbol. "Look at that symbol" she said. "This is probably an underground military base for emergencies."

"Yeah it's Mount Weather" Michael said sarcastically.

"It isn't impossible" John said. "There are lots of military's hideouts for 'special' people build underground. This is an ideal place to hide it."

"Well" Michael started "does this mean we can find people here?" he asked

"I'm not sure about people" said Emily.

"If these places are protected, then there might be survivors here."

"No" Emily said more scared "we need to find a way out of here-"

"Well only one way" Michael said gesturing towards the corridor.

"I don't like this either" Elizabeth said quietly.

"You wanna head back?" Michael asked

"We can't…" Elizabeth replied.

"Yeah so let's head in there and be careful." Michael said turning on his flashlight and taking lead.

The rest did the same and they went through the corridor. It was a very long one and straight one. After a while they reached a door.

Michael turned to look at the others and opened it. They walked in to what it looked like a huge storage room. They all turned their flashlights. It had vehicles, helicopters, hundreds of boxes in piles, _tanks?_

"I think Emily was right" John said quietly.

They all just stood there looking around.

"Leave it to the government to build something like this." Laura said.

"Maybe we can use any?" Michael asked.

"I don't think we can get any of these out of here" John said looking around. "See the door?" he was pointing at the end of the room at an extremely enormous, heavy, metal door. "It's closed and we need electricity for that kind of door."

"Maybe we can find gas at least if there is any?" Laura asked. "We did come for gas after all…"

"Guys no" Emily said "We have to find a way to get out from here and not mess with anything-"

"These all could be really useful Emily" Michael told her. "Okay listen" he turned to everybody else "I bet these places work with their own generators. We find them and that door should open" he said nodding towards the door. "We can get outside and maybe we can-"

"Okay hold on" Emily interrupted. "Look around." she told them. "What do you see?"

"A treasure vault!" Michael said waving him arms around.

"_No guards_" Emily said a bit angrily.

"And if there are no guards" Laura started "that probably means they're dead…"

"Or worse" Elizabeth said looking scared. "We just closed ourselves in with infected" she said quietly. She looked at Emily. "She's right, let's find a way out."

Michael looked like he didn't agree but he said "Okay, but we're coming back some other time otherwise our little trip to this village would have been for nothing" he said and took lead again walking through the storage.

The others followed him. Emily looked at Elizabeth. "You're right" Elizabeth said "This could be dangerous."

"Huh" Emily sighed "Lets just get out"

They walked up some stairs towards an observatory room and got in. _This place is really gone_ thought Emily looking at the deserted desks and computers. _How did a place like this end up like…this?_

They went through another door and found themselves in a completely dark corridor.

"Shit" Michael said

"Which way?" Laura asked.

"Check the walls for any maps of the place" Emily said walking along the wall.

"There's one here" John said looking at the map. "It's an emergency map with routes to the exits." The others approached him

"Where's the nearest one?" Michael asked.

They looked at it for a bit.

"Well the nearest one is through that huge door" he said pointing back from where they came. "But" he continued "this one right here seems to be the closest. It's on the third floor though."

"Third floor?" Laura asked amazed. "How big is this place?"

"Let's go" Michael said "We can go through here and…be really quiet." he added.

They walked again through the corridor and followed it right.

It was too dark. _What if they needed electricity to get out?_ Emily thought. They walked for a while reaching a huge room that had glass windows separating it into smaller rooms. Behind them were more computers and desks. This is where they probably controlled everything in this facility.

"Ssh!" Michael said crouching behind a desk and waving his arm to the others. They crouched too and walked to him.

"Clickers" he whispered.

Emily stood up slowly and flashed the flashlight around the room.

She quickly crouched again scared. "Infected. An army of them" she said. "In the middle"

"Fuck we gotta find another way to get to the third floor." Michael said.

"Those corridors on the left and right" John said looking at them. "Let's pick one and go."

"Okay, left-go" Michael said and they all slowly moved to the doors leading to them. They walked slowly Emily looking through the glass window separating the corridor with the room. She took out her axe. This place was a death trap.

_Click_ she heard behind her. She turned around fast. Two Clickers got out from a room she just passed, separating her and Michael from the rest. She waved fast to the others to back up and to Michael to move forward. More Clickers came out from it.

_Damn_ she thought scared. She didn't want to be separated from Elizabeth but she followed Michael forward having no other choice. They reached the end of the corridor. There was a way on the left.

"We need to get them" Emily told him urgently.

"How?" he asked.

"I don't-" she stopped talking, looking through the glass window to the opposite corridor. Elizabeth, John and Laura were going through the other one. John flashed his flashlight towards them and then up.

"No" Emily shook her head and then the flashlight negatively. They weren't gonna get separated.

"No choice Emily, let's go" Michael said. "We'll meet them upstairs"

Emily bit her lips angrily and looked at her sister. "Okay let's go" she told Michael and went through the corridor.

They followed it, turning right and then after a while found two doors. One looking like a ship's door with a turning wheel on it, the other a metal one with a keycard entrance, but it was open.

"These don't look like a way out or a way to the third floor" Emily said.

Michael stood up and looked for a map on the wall. He found one and looked at it for a few moments. "Emily down that door is the generator room" he told her.

"Not this again" she said reaching him.

"Look we can head back to that door" he said to her "and get out much easily than having to crawl through this place."

"Well…" Emily started but she didn't have anything to argue with. In fact she felt this would be indeed the easiest way out. They weren't that far away from the storage room. "The others won't know" she said finally.

"We'll get them" he said. "Come on."

He walked to the door with the wheel and turned it. Behind it was a more narrow corridor with big pipes on the ceilings. He took lead following the corridor and down some stairs. They walked slowly, taking out their guns walking further down. They reached the bottom and turned around the corner. It was a very large room with enormous machinery.

"Shit" Emily said. "Spores" she pointed up ahead.

"No, damn it" Michael said. "We were so close to this shit" he whispered angry.

"You know how to power them up?" Emily asked turning to look at him

"It's easy-"

"Psst" someone said from somewhere above them. Emily and Michael turned their heads up and saw they others on a floor above them standing on a metal grating.

"Get up here!" John whispered through the room.

"Wait" Emily whispered to Michael turning to him. She searched in her backpack taking out her oxygen mask. "You power them up, right?" she asked him handing him the mask.

He looked at it looking a bit scared. "This works right?" he asked taking the mask.

"Yeah" Emily said turning back to look at the others.

"Storage room!" she whispered to them.

"I thought-" Laura started

"Change of plans" Emily said back.

"Careful" Elizabeth said to them looking at Emily.

Michael wore the mask nodded to Emily and walked towards the spores to the machinery.

She watched him disappear in the density of the spores and stood there her gun at the ready. Everything was quiet except for the sounds Michael made.

A few minutes passed and suddenly there was a loud growling noise from somewhere near Emily. She turned around pointing the gun towards the noise. It was a…Bloater.

"Shit!" she said backing away. The Bloater made a weird creepy sound and looked like it was ready to attack.

"Michael!" Emily said urgently. "Whatever you're doing, do it faster!"

The Bloater launched at her. She raised her gun and shot it. She heard more shots from above. The others were shooting at it too. It slowed him down. She took the chance, put her gun in her holster and took out the rifle, running far away from it. She locked on the Bloater and shot him.

"Michael!" John shouted from above.

"I got it!" Michael shouted back.

The Bloater came running again and Emily kept going along the wall running away from it.

Suddenly the whole room lit up. Michael did it.

"GO!" he shouted to the others upstairs and ran towards the stairs beckoning at Emily to follow him. She ran to him, Michael shooting at the Bloater and then they both ran up the stairs.

They just made it up when a siren went off and emergency red lights lit on the walls. Emily turned to look at Michael frightened. This was bad, this was really bad. They just startled all the infected.

"We gotta run to the storage" Michael said sounding scared. They ran following the corridor back. Emily though of Elizabeth and her heart beat faster. _What if they didn't make it?_

They reached the room with the glass windows. She looked over the opposite corridor but couldn't see them coming.

"We gotta run past them" Michael said

Emily turned to look at the whole room. There were countless of infected but only three in their corridor.

She took out her gun and Michael did too and they run towards the infected. They shot them before they even turned around and ran back to the corridor that led towards the storage. The infected in the room were acting wild, hearing that siren. Some of them followed Emily and Michael but they just shot them. They reached the observatory room.

"There must be a switch to open the door" Michael said breathing fast. They started looking around the computers and found a switchboard in the middle of the room.

Michael pulled a switch and the huge metal door started opening slowly.

"We did it" he said

They didn't have time to take in another breath when Elizabeth appeared behind them running. She stopped, looking scared to death.

"Liz!" Emily said going towards her. "You're okay" she said.

"I'm fine…Laura" she said tears running down her cheeks. "Laura-"

"Shit" Michael said. "God…"

"And John?" asked Emily looking worried.

"We got separated" Elizabeth said sobbing. "I-I don't know-"

Emily looked at her for a moment and then spoke. "Michael" said Emily turning to him "you get Elizabeth and head down to a truck. Try to start it up, they should be working. Load it with anything useful" she added.

"Where are you-" he started. "You're not going back are you?" he said looking at her

"John could be alive-"

"We can't go in there it's suicide!" Elizabeth said frightened "And I'm not letting you."

"Go down with Michael-"

"No!" Elizabeth said grabbing her.

"Emily it's too dangerous-" Michael started

"It's our fault Laura's dead and John's stuck in there." Emily turned to him angry. "He's got a son…" she said stubbornly.

"Liz" she turned to look at her "if anything happens in there I'll run out okay-I promise" she added. "Please just go" she added and went past her towards the corridor leading in.

Emily reached that room again with the windows. She grabbed a grenade from her backpack and threw it towards the left corridor. She ran towards the right one as the grenade exploded. Some infected have been blown apart and the rest heard it and headed towards it, making the corridor safer to cross. She reached its end and turned right through another corridor. There were two ways. Some stairs leading upstairs on the left, and a way forward. She decided to go up since John and the others were on the second floor when this happened.

She ran upstairs and then through a corridor. She could hear infected straight ahead. She looked at the map. There were lots of rooms. Emily had no idea where to go.

_What am I doing?_ she thought

BAM! a shot was heard from up ahead.

"John" she said and ran through the door.

She pointed her gun towards the infected and started shooting. It was chaos anyway. She killed them moving forward.

_Shit no bullets_. She put away the gun and grabbed her axe running towards the sound of shots. She reached some suites.

"John?" she yelled.

"Over here!" he shouted back.

There were two infected running towards her. She swinged the axe taking the one's head off and slashed the other one in the chest.

"Ugh!" she yelled sticking the axe in its head finishing it off.

She turned around running in between the suites.

"Emily!" John yelled to her. She saw him on her left in a suite with a couple of dead infected on the floor.

"Come on!" she shouted to him beckoning him outside. He ran to her and together they started running back, hearing infected behind them. After a while they reached the room with the windows. The sounds of the infected behind them faded.

"Fuck" Emily said. The infected were scattered everywhere. They had to run out of luck sooner or later.

"I'll distract them" John said looking at Emily.

"You're insane" Emily spat." I got in here to get you out not to get you killed! Hold on" she said before he could interrupt her.

She looked around for any ideas. How could they distract them, she had no other bombs.

"The speakers!" she burst out looking up to the corners of the ceiling and along the walls. "Shoot the ones near and in the corridor. They'll be attracted to the ones on the right and we make a run for it."

"Okay" John said and raised his gun and shot every speaker. The left side went a lot quieter and after a minute the infected started running to the right side.

"NOW!" Emily said and they made a run for it. They slipped through the corridor and continued running towards the observatory room. They reached it, got in and went down the stairs down to the storage.

"Hop in!" Elizabeth shouted from the back of a truck. Michael was in the front driving. Emily and John climbed to the back of the truck and Michael stepped on the gas going through the huge opening where the door was.

"You okay?" Elizabeth asked worried grabbing Emily's arm.

"I'm okay" Emily replied breathlessly.

"John?" Elizabeth asked.

"I'm good. No bites" he added ruffling his hair.

Elizabeth and Emily nodded and leaned to the side of the truck resting.

Michael drove the truck for nearly ten minutes until he stopped. Emily was dizzy and too tired but turned around to see.

They reached another identical huge door. Michael got out from the truck and went over to the left side wall. He pulled a switch and the door started opening slowly. He climbed the back of the truck, holding onto its side.

"Everybody okay?" he asked.

"We're good" John said nodding.

"Let's go home" Elizabeth said exhausted.

Michael nodded in agreement and went back inside the truck driving it out the door into the starry night.

...

Emily was sitting next to Elizabeth feeling like she could sleep forever but she couldn't close her eyes yet. Michael was sitting at the other end of the back of the truck. They exchanged places with John after driving all night long.

Emily looked at Elizabeth. She looked tired and miserable.

"Liz" Emily started. "You _need_ to come back with me" she said quietly.

"Not this again." Elizabeth said annoyed.

"The outside is not safe" Emily continued. "Look-look at what we've just been through."

"That was one in a million" Elizabeth answered.

"Death isn't one in a million" Emily said. "But we can maybe stop this with Zachary's files. And we can be safer in the zones. I bet he'd tell you the same-"

"You have no idea what he'd say" Elizabeth spat.

"He'd want his hard work to not be in vain" Emily said.

Elizabeth turned around looking at Emily with angry eyes. "Let me tell you what he wanted" she said harshly. "He wanted to live. He wanted out of the zones and the pressure of the military. Yeah, he worked on finding a cure but he knew better and so do I."

Emily was about to interrupt when Elizabeth spoke raising her voice.

"You know that hunters killed him? Hmm? The same people who the vaccine would go to if there was one created? They killed a man not even thinking twice, a good man who gave all he had to find an answer."

"Liz-" Emily started quietly.

"He was like a father to me" she said tears falling to her cheeks. "In all this shit he protected me and trusted me…and I lost him…and so many others."

Emily stared at her not knowing what to tell her. Elizabeth turned around not looking at her.

Emily felt bad for pushing her sister like this. She suddenly felt like she didn't want to convince her anymore. This was the place Elizabeth wanted to be…it made her happier…

BAM! a shot was heard from somewhere above.

"MICHAEL!" Elizabeth shouted.

Michael was hit, he was…dead.

"My god!" Elizabeth shouted getting ready to go to him.

"Stay down!" Emily yelled pulling her down on the floor of the truck.

_Sniper_ she thought. There were more shots and the truck jerked sideways downhill through the woods. After some moments John stepped on the brake and turned the wheel abruptly making the truck crash.

Emily and Elizabeth were thrown on each other.

"Ugh" Emily groaned getting off Elizabeth. She stood up looking towards the woods they just drove through. She could hear horses coming this way.

"Get up!" she told Elizabeth pulling her. She got up and they jumped off the truck, John joining them his head bleeding.

"Run!" he said and they started running further into the woods. They could hear the horses coming closer. They jumped over uprooted trees, rocks, bushes but there was nothing up ahead that could offer them any protection.

Emily panicked fear running down her spine. She grabbed her rifle and turned around to look. She saw five horses with hunters. She tried to keep a steady hand and locked onto one. She took a shot and killed him.

They had no choice they had to face them. The others jumped behind trees and took out their weapons too. Emily hid behind one and right after she did she heard shots being fired towards them.

_Oh god_ she thought. She was really scared but she peeked over the side of the tree and aimed.

"AAGH!" she screamed. A horse just went by her, nearly hitting her. The hunter on it turned it around ready to fire his gun but Emily shot him before he could raise it.

The rest of the hunters were shooting at the others. There were two left. She ran around the tree and yelled "OVER HERE!" aiming at one of them. One was shot from John and the other one turned to look at her. Emily jumped behind the tree again as shots were fired towards her. Her heart was racing as more shots were heard and then stopped.

She peeked again over the tree and only saw the horses. The hunters were dead.

"John…Liz?" she yelled running towards them. John appeared from behind a tree looking shocked.

"Liz?" Emily asked him.

"LIZ?" he shouted too looking around.

"Over here!" Elizabeth yelled back at them.

Emily didn't like the sound of her voice. She ran towards it. She found her behind a tree on the ground.

"Liz?" she said fearfully approaching her sister. "Liz?" she said crouching down next to her. She's been shot. There was a gunshot wound on her side.

"I'm…okay" she said painfully.

Emily tried to pull her hands from the wound "Lemme, let me see" she was saying panicked.

"I'm okay" Elizabeth said again.

Emily turned to John "We gotta get her back to the village" she said her voice trembling.

"The horses John!" she said urgently when he didn't respond.

He glanced at her and ran to bring one.

"I'm gonna get you back and you'll be fine, you'll be fine." she said to Elizabeth trying to calm her down…and herself…

"Sis" Elizabeth said in a heavy, quiet voice grabbing Emily's hand.

"I got you" Emily said as John reached them with two horses. He reached down and helped Emily to put Elizabeth on a horse.

"I'll ride with her" he said getting up on the horse with Elizabeth.

Emily didn't argue, she wouldn't be able to control the horse with Elizabeth. But having no other choice she climbed onto the other one and they both rode uphill again and onto the road.

They were still far away from the village, the tunnel underground brought them out at a completely different place and even with the truck they didn't manage to get to the village by night. They rode for nearly half an hour, Emily's heart was ready to explode from fear. _Not my sister_ she was thinking _not her…_

Then John started to slow down.

"What are you doing?" she yelled to him. John turned to look at her shaking his head negatively.

"We need…" Emily started with a short breath "we need to go!" she was saying panicky.

"Emily-" he said slowly stopping the horse.

Emily stopped the horse too. "No…no just…" she didn't know what she was saying. Elizabeth was really pale.

John climbed down from his horse holding Elizabeth from the arm and was looking at Emily his eyes watering. Emily jumped from the horse and reached him. She looked at her sister breathing heavily. She grabbed her hand, her getting eyes wet. She stood there for a moment struggling with herself.

She reached to Elizabeth and with John they managed slowly to get her off the horse. They walked, holding her, towards the start of the woods and sat her down at the bank of a tree. John turned around and walked back at the horses.

Emily removed Elizabeth's hands from the wound looking at it. She tried to think what to do but her brain stopped working. This felt all so sudden.

"Sis" Elizabeth said in a very quiet voice.

Emily removed the hair from her face stroking her. She had a big lump in her throat and no voice to talk to her.

"Sis I…I know you" Elizabeth started slowly, breathing hard. "Come…" she said. Emily leaned her head close to Elizabeth's mouth. After a moment she pulled back looking at her, tears running down her cheeks.

"Will you?" Elizabeth said as she let out her last breath her eyes looking empty.

Emily was shaking, her body numb, crying silently.

"I will."


	5. A LAST LIE - AUGUST

4 YEARS LATER

AUGUST

She was making breakfast. Nothing better than good old baby crème. Hard to get nowadays, but she managed. She left the mug with the crème on a table and headed into one of the cells.

She was sleeping on her stomach. Emily hoped she was having good dreams…the ones she didn't have. She approached her and gently stroked her on her back and head.

"Baby?" she started. "Honey wake up. Time to wake up" Emily told her.

The little girl stirred and turned on her back rubbing her eyes but immediately turned on her side and tried to continue sleeping.

"Okay, no, honey come on…I made you your favorite." Emily tried to get her attention. "Crème!"

"Mamania, crema?" the girl said turning again on her back and opening her eyes.

Emily raised her hand holding a pacifier. "We eat and you get to hold this alright?"

The girl grabbed the pacifier putting it in her mouth with the other one she already had.

"Come on" Emily said pulling her by both arms to stand up. The girl stood up and started jumping on the bed.

"We go for a walk today" Emily said grabbing the little girl's shoes from the floor and leaving them on the side of the bed.

"Park?" the girl asked.

"Uh…no, maybe later okay? Wear those" she said pointing to the shoes and got up, getting out from the cell to the table.

"Can't" the baby said still jumping.

"Don't lie to me!" Emily said turning to her, making a face.

The girl laughed and sat to the edge of the bed wearing her shoes. She slid down the bed and walked to the table climbing on the chair and sitting.

Emily extended her arm to her mouth and she reluctantly spit the pacifiers into her palm.

"Show me how you eat all by yourself" Emily told her pushing her the crème and a spoon.

The little girl started eating hungrily.

"Well done honey."

...

They were walking in the empty road. Behind them was the prison, a lonely building on the hill. Emily was gonna head down to a street a mile away. There was a supermarket and some other shops but she only needed baby supplies now. Easy to get, except for baby food. People were eating that too. She was holding the girl by her hand. She was really obedient. Emily usually bribed her to get her to do as she wanted but today she was quiet.

The roads were empty in the countrysides. Some abandoned cars here and there but nothing really dangerous. After half an hour they reached the street.

Emily put the girl down, after she climbed on her because she got tired of walking.

"Remember" she told her whispering "there are a lot of bad wolves so stay close to me okay?"

"Okay" the little girl whispered back.

Emily tried making situations into a game. Bad wolves, them running to get a surprise gift, hide and seek. She made sure they had lots of practice but nothing like this could be ever practiced really. Emily had to protect them both.

They walked downhill. The street seemed quiet. As always. She came here often scavenging stuff, food. Soon it would all run out too. There was a floor in the supermarket selling toys. It was a gold mine and a playground for the little girl. Emily never allowed her to take any back with them. She was using the toys from there giving them to her either for bribing or for positive feedback. They reached the store and got in.

They walked through some corridors reaching the stands with the diapers. Emily picked some putting them in her backpack. They walked through some other corridors picking up whatever useful was left. The girl was singing with her tiny voice and her not so understandable words.

Emily shook her head but let her sing. It was safe here.

After a while they got everything they wanted. Emily headed back to the exits when she heard a noise from one of the cash resisters and turned to look. There was a man there searching the counter. Emily took her gun out of her holster and pointed it on him.

"Whoa whoa!" he turned to look at her raising both his arms. "I'm not looking for trouble" he said.

"Any sudden movements and you're dead." Emily said seriously.

"Okay, no need for that" he said. He looked at the little girl.

Emily cocked her gun.

"Hey, uh, you're all alone?" he asked

Emily didn't answer and holding the girl tightly from the hand started walking slowly sideways towards the exits, still pointing the gun on him.

"Listen, I-I think I can help you" the man continued. "My name's Leonard. What-what's yours?"

"I don't need your help, just stay where you are buddy" Emily said angrily.

"Are you sure you don't need help?" he asked her "This is a dangerous world, we can help you."

_We_ Emily thought. She looked around. There were a few men scattered in the store coming from behind shelves.

"Don't get any closer" she shouted to them.

"We're not dangerous" Leonard told her nodding. "We have our own little town with a large group of people…good people. And food, plenty. God has been generous with us" he said. "You can join us" he added.

"No thanks" Emily said. How was she getting out of there? There were no men at the exits and the rest of them weren't holding any guns. She wasn't trusting them though.

"No need to worry" Leonard said lowering his arms.

Emily raised the gun to his head to warn him from getting his hands down.

"Aagh!" she exhaled. She felt something at the side of her neck. She let go of the girl and put her hand up removing a dart arrow.

Sleeping agent. She looked up to see where it came from her eyes getting blurry and grabbed the girl's hand firmly. That was the last thing she did before falling down on the floor, everything going black.

...

Emily was waking up. Her eyes were heavy and her brain empty. She suddenly remembered what happened. She opened her eyes widely, sat up and looked around. She was in a room with a desk, a wardrobe, a toilet. It looked normal and tidy, like someone lived in here. She was on the bed.

"Honey?" Emily shouted panicked. "Honey?"

She got up and walked towards the door. Something held her back from the hand. She had a chain on one of her hands. She tried removing it but there was no chance she could do that. It needed a key.

"Fuck" she said. She pulled again as hard as she could, trying to take it off knowing that she couldn't. She started breathing very fast, her heart beating like silent drums under her skin.

_Where is she?_ she thought, _where is she?_

There was a creak from the door and it opened. Leonard stepped in closing it behind him.

"Where is she?" she said furiously.

"Before you jump to conclusions" he said quietly "let me explain"

"I think I got the picture" Emily spat. "_Where is she_?" she repeated.

Leonard sat on the chair near the table and looked at her. "She's safe." he told her smiling.

"We aren't going to hurt you" he told her. "I wasn't lying when I said about our little town. I'll show you-"

"I don't need your shit" Emily said. "Give her to me and let us go."

"I will, I cannot hold you against your will but…you're not safe alone wandering the streets. I can offer you a home."

"Yeah" she said holding up the hand with the chain.

"Would you not attack me if I hadn't had that on your hand?" Leonard asked her.

She didn't answer.

"What do you want from me?" Emily asked

"Nothing" Leonard answered. "I only want to help. I knew you weren't going to listen to me back at the store-"

"And what makes you think I'm gonna listen now?"

"I will take you to her." Leonard said. "Just let me show you our little haven on the way" he said calmly. "We try to help good people who have lost their way and create a home for all of us."

He got up and reached in his pocket. He took out a key and threw it to her.

Emily grabbed it looking at him and then unlocked the chain.

"You're free to go" he told her. "I'm not going to stop you."

Emily closed her fist thinking hard. She wanted to attack him but instead she was gonna let him talk and lead her.

"Let me take you to her" he said smiling and walked to the door, opening it for her. She looked at him and got out. They were on the second floor of some apartments. The corridor they stepped out to was open, more like a balcony. Emily looked down at the road. There were people walking, carrying things, women and men laughing, guards walking with guns. She could see further away the way out, guarded by men. Beyond that she saw the countryside. This was one of the many small towns scattered through it.

Leonard walked through the corridor and nodded to Emily to follow him.

"You will find that this is a very safe place" he told her. "So…what's your name?" he asked her smiling.

"Heather" she said after a moment.

"Nice to meet you Heather" he said extending a hand to shake hers.

She didn't take it.

"Okay don't worry about it" he said "I know what you're thinking. I wouldn't trust anybody either. But I'll prove you wrong" he said.

They went out to the streets.

"This way" he said walking opposite of the exit. "Hello Mike!" he waved to someone carrying a box.

"Leonard good day to you!" the man replied.

"God bless you" Leonard said nodding.

They walked for a while, Heather looking at the houses and the people. Everything looked normal to her. Nothing dangerous or suspicious. Maybe Leonard wasn't lying, but the way they 'introduced' wasn't her style and she wasn't trusting him yet.

"Who's your new friend?" a woman asked Leonard approaching them.

"Linda this is Heather."

"Nice to meet you!" Linda said taking Heather's hand in hers. "You are so lucky…Leonard found you didn't he? Oh he is such a great man. Welcome home!" she said and let go of her hand.

"Linda is the little girl still at the playground?" Leonard asked her.

"Yes, she is so energetic" Linda said to Heather amazed. "Does not want to rest a minute. Come on" she said walking faster.

They crossed the street and walked for a while walking past houses, shops and finally reached the playground. It had swings, slides, toys-

"Alice!" Heather shouted and ran to her. She was on a merry go round with another woman who turned it slowly.

Heather jumped on it and grabbed her, hugging her tightly.

"Oh baby" she pushed her a bit away, looking at her, checking to make sure they didn't hurt her. She was ok.

"Mamania!" she said jumping. "Park!"

"Yeah it's a park" Heather said. She pulled her up in her arms holding her and turned to look at the others.

"Maria took good care of her" Leonard said.

Heather turned to look at that other woman.

"She was very obedient." Maria said.

"She's not very talkative" Leonard chuckled when Heather didn't answer.

"Listen" he said approaching her. "You can stay the night" he told her. "With your little girl. There's room for both of you, of course that's why we took you in."

"There's always room for good people" Maria told her.

"Uh-" Heather started. She didn't know what to do. She wasn't sure.

"Tell you what, stay for the one night, eat dinner with us, meet the people!" Leonard said looking around the town. "If you want to leave after that, you're of course, free to go."

Heather looked at him and the other two women thinking this through. She suddenly felt like she was back at her sister's little village.

"Okay" she finally said.

...

She ended up staying for more than a night. People were kind to her, treated her good and there was food. All she wanted was for Alice to be safe whether that was in the zones or anywhere else. It kind of felt like the village up in the mountains, but this place had more rules and even curfew. No one was allowed to wander after seven o'clock, for safety. Heather didn't care though. It was a good precaution.

"You intend to stay here then? Maria asked her. Heather was sitting on a bench outside, where the sun was warm, feeding Alice.

"I think I will" Heather replied.

"It's safe here for your daughter" Maria said looking at her sweetly.

"She's…she's not mine." Heather said after a moment.

Maria was taken aback. "Whose is it then?"

Heather was struggling a bit to talk. "She's my sisters. Was…"

"Oh dear" Maria said looking at the girl. "I'm sorry."

Heather didn't answer but nodded. She was being honest. And she felt like she was doing justice to the little girl by expressing the truth. And justice to Elizabeth…

"Tonight we are meeting at the church" Maria finally spoke.

Heather turned to look at her looking curious. "Church?"

"Yes. We express our gratitude for all He gives us. The protection, the food."

"Oh I…I'm not much of a believer" Heather said honestly.

"Well you have to believe that someone is keeping us alive that long!" Maria said smiling.

Heather didn't really know what to tell her. The only thing she believed that was keeping them alive that long, was luck. But she didn't want to go into religion waters.

"I think I'll stay home" she finally said.

"As you wish" Maria said to her getting up, still smiling. "You're welcome any time. The Lord's doors are always open." she said and walked away.

_Huh_ Heather thought. _If it makes them sleep at night…_

"Mamania!" the girl nagged, opening her mouth.

"Here you go" Heather said giving her food.

"Stop-now!" a guard yelled through the street to a man.

The man started running but the guard caught up with him, grabbing him, and making him kneel.

"My brother's sick he needs this" the man shouted.

"What is going on here?" Leonard said quietly approaching them.

"This man stole food-" the guard started.

"Please my brother needs it" the man said looking at Leonard desperate. "He's not feeling well."

"You know the rules" Leonard replied. "And stealing food is not tolerated. One day" he added to the guard.

"Please-wait!" the man said being grabbed by the guard and getting up. They walked away.

The people around that were watching returned to what they were doing. Leonard spotted Heather and walked to her.

"Hello Alice!" he said to the girl smiling. He turned to Heather.

"Don't worry about that, that happens sometimes" he said.

"Where is he going?" Heather asked.

"Well if someone breaks a rule they need to be punished." Leonard explained. "We can't have everyone doing what they want."

"Punished?"

"Oh nothing really!" Leonard said waving his hand.

"But why did he have to steal in the first place though?"

"We give people certain amount of ration to keep everyone happy. We can't be unfair."

"He said his brother needed it…" Heather said giving a spoonful to Alice.

"People need a lot of things" Leonard said lowering his head. "You have to understand something Heather. If we're going to rebuild society, it needs to be like it was before. There are laws and punishments. There are actions and consequences." He placed his hand of her shoulder and got up. "I'll see you tonight" he said.

_Right, the church_ she thought. "I-I won't be coming" she told him.

"Oh no, no, no, you are one of us now!" he said joyfully. "Just this one time?" he asked of her. "For me?"

"Oh…uh…" she started. _Damn_ she thought. She didn't want to disappoint the man who kept her alive. "Okay just this once" she said.

"And if you don't like it, remember you don't need to go again" he told her and walked away.

This place made her feel weird. But it's not that it was weird really. These people are trying to build society as it was before. That's what they want. Heather wasn't exactly into that but if she wanted to live here, she was gonna have to play by the rules. For Alice's sake.

_People will turn to religion when shit happens_ she thought. _Well if it does make them sleep at night…_

_..._

The night at the church was…enlightening. Leonard was in charge of the whole thing. They finally got home with Alice.

"Here you go" Heather said giving her milk. Alice took it and started drinking, laying on the bed.

Heather sat down by the window. These people had electricity, crops, safety, rules, even powdered milk! She shook her head looking outside. The rest of the countryside was dark. Maybe she finally found a place to live. Sure they had their own ways. There were a lot of religious people for starters, but she could live with that. A lot of people came to the church. They all seem to be at some degree faithful. Why shouldn't they though? Staying alive for this long was only a miracle. Building a place like this was a miracle too. She didn't blame them for wanting to be grateful. And they have to show that gratitude to someone. She turned to look at Alice. She drank the milk and left the bottle by the side of the bed. She was sleeping.

"Sweet dreams" Heather said putting a blanket over her and sitting at the window again.

...

"So…what are you good at?" Leonard asked her happily.

"I, uh-" Heather started. "I don't know" she said skeptical.

"Well you must be good at something!" he said leaning back on his chair. "What do you like?"

What did she like?

"Nature" she said thinking. "Football" she chuckled.

"Haha well…" Leonard laughed. "We can arrange a match for you with some of our guys."

"Really?" she asked suprised .

"I did tell you we're trying to make this place as good as it was back then" he said matter of factly. "Entertainment is essential. Last month we organized a play. Theatre."

"No shit?" she said amazed.

"No I'm serious" he said smiling. "I believe…" he started more seriously "you're good at surviving."

Heather looked at him and chuckled a bit.

"You are" he said. "You survived out there all alone with your little girl. You have a gun" he added. "I bet you know how to handle yourself."

Heather looked at him reading his face. "You want me to help you with outside work" she said.

"Everybody helps with something. Whatever they're good at."

Heather shook her head. "I can't risk it…with Alice. If anything happened to me…"

"I understand" he said. Then he added quietly "You have survived out there though. You kept her safe in a very dangerous world. Here she's safe and always will be. We need qualified people out there" he said leaning towards her speaking more quietly. "We need to protect our people and scavenge food. By doing this you're protecting her too."

Heather bowed her head biting her lower lip. He was right, but still…it was a risk.

"I promise you, I will only sent you out to where it's safest." he said looking at her, his eyes begging.

"Let me guess" she said. "I help you out once with the outside, but if I don't feel safe I don't need to do it again?"

Leonard chuckled raising his hands surrendering. "You know how this works" he said smiling.

"And who will watch over Alice when I'm gone?"

"I'll have Maria do that for you. She's very good with children."

She looked at him for a moment thinking. "Alright" she agreed.

"Good!" he said clapping his hands. "There's work for you now" he said. "I'm sending a couple of my guys to another town east of this one to scavenge food, gas- I actually have a list with everything we need. Simple right?"

"Let's hope" Heather said.

"Here's the list, you take it. Lets meet our boys down at the entrance" he said getting up.

"Wait" Heather said getting up too. "Right now? Mind if I say goodbye to Alice?"

"Go on. I'll meet you at the entrance" he said walking away.

Heather went outside of the building and headed towards the playground.

"Hey" she said to Maria approaching her. "I'm gonna head out for a while. Mind looking after her until I came back?"

"Of course sweetheart" Maria said happily. "She's gold" she said turning to look at the little girl.

"Thank you" Heather said and walked over to Alice.

"Hey baby" she said crouching to look at her.

"La, la, la, la!" Alice was singing and making weird moves trying to dance.

"Hey, mamania has to go to away for a while to find us a toy. You'd like a new toy right?"

"Toy yes, yes!" the girl said happily still waving her hands around.

"Alright you be good to Maria" she said. "Do whatever she says and I'll be back in no time."

"Okaaay!" Alice said melodically.

"Highfive!" Heather said raising her hand.

Alice highfived her with all her strength.

"Ouch you're getting strong!" Heather said leaning to kiss her on the forehead and walked away. She nodded to Maria and headed to the room she was staying with Alice. She walked to her backpack, grabbed it and walked to the entrance. A couple of men were waiting there for her next to a pickup truck, along with Leonard. She reached them waving the list.

"Heather this is Roberto, Kevin and Edward." Leonard said introducing them.

They nodded to her and so did she.

"It's just us?" she asked.

"You're capable" Leonard said. "Alright" he said turning to look at the guards standing above them on the 'wall'. "Give as on opening" he shouted to one of the guards.

He turned to look at Heather while a guard opened the gate. "She'll be safe. Take care, God be with you."

She nodded and turned around to follow the others into the pickup truck. She jumped at the back.

"You can sit inside" Kevin told her.

"I'm good" she said.

"Alright!" he replied.

When everybody settled, Edward drove them outside, towards the green scenery.

"So…" Roberto started. They were the two sitting at the back. "You must be good at this if Leonard sent you with us."

"I don't know if 'good' is the right word for it…"

Roberto smiled at her. "We do what we have to" he said looking at the trees they passed.

"You've been at this for long?" Heather asked him.

"Yeah you can say that. Our little town survived a lot." he said. "I can never be more grateful for this" he said looking at her. "We have a little haven in this place of hell" he added.

"I guess you do."

"_We_ do" he corrected her.

She half smiled. They drove for half an hour until they reached the town. Edward stopped the truck just outside of it.

"We go by foot from here" Roberto said jumping off the truck. The others got out too, Edward locking the doors.

"We're gonna leave it here?" Heather asked looking at the pickup.

Edward nodded to the fill sprout. Heather turned to look. It was barricaded.

"And I have the keys" Edward said holding them. "Don't worry it's not the first time we do this. Come on" he added.

They walked down the street.

"We split up" Kevin said.

"I'll go with Heather" Roberto said. "We'll take the west side."

"Alright" Kevin said. "We go east. Back here in two hours tops?"

"Got it" Roberto said.

"See you soon" Heather told them walking away with Roberto.

"Okay we check every place and everything" Roberto told her. "Every nook and cranny."

"I know how to do this" she told him. "I'm good at this remember?"

"Hoho, touché!" he said smiling to her.

"Okay" he said after a while reaching some buildings. "This town is quiet. Perhaps it can go smoothly."

"Let's wish. The quiet isn't always good."

"I'll head into that tavern" he told her. "You go check that clothing shop."

"Okay" she agreed. "We do this quietly, yeah"

"Sure thing."

Heather walked to the clothing shop's glass doors. They were broken and it was dark inside. She took out her knife and walked slowly in. She couldn't hear anything. She turned on her flashlight and walked looking around for anything useful. The shop was empty. No clothes, only some, which were a small size. No use for those. She continued to the back of the shop.

"Argh!" a growling sound was heard from her left.

She turned in time to see a Stalker jumping at her. She dodged it slamming herself on the wall. He turned again ready to launch, waving its arms dangerously towards her. She kicked him on the leg and he kneeled. She plunged her knife into its skull. The Stalker dropped dead.

"Sonofabitch" she spat. _You scared the fuck out of me_ she thought.

She flashed her flashlight around checking for anyone else.

"Huh" she exhaled. She continued searching the place but didn't find anything worth taking. She went back outside and entered another building that was…funeral services.

_Every nook and cranny…_ she thought.

She walked to the counter and looked underneath it. Nothing. She went to the back of the place. They engraved the gravestones here and made the coffins. The whole place felt like death and she didn't really like the feeling. She was dealing with death everyday but didn't like the open coffins lying around the place, as if inviting her to lay down in one of them. She searched the rooms grabbing some stuff here and there. She walked into one room that had a coffin high on the wall.

_Nice decoration_ she thought. She searched the office but there was nothing. She was about to walk out when she saw keys dangling from the wall next to the door. She took them checking them out. They were small, like the ones you use to open a suitcase.

She looked around searching for one. But there was none. Neither she remembered any in the other rooms. She thought about where would someone hide a suitcase. She turned to look to that coffin on the wall.

_No…_ she thought. She hesitated but decided to check it out. She stepped onto a chair and grabbed the coffin, pushing it from the wall. It was heavy but she did it. It fell down making a loud noise.

"Shit" she said. She jumped down to it and turned it around, opening it.

_No way!_ she thought. There was a locked, small, metal box. She tried the keys on it. They worked.

"Huh" she said. Two handguns and lots of bullets. _Good find_ she thought taking it all.

_Why wouldn't the owner take it though?_ she wondered.

_Click._

She heard the noise behind her, somewhere outside the room. _That's why!_

She crouched down holding her knife tightly. There was one Clicker heading towards the room. She walked to the side of the door quietly. The Clicker walked in, making that awful sound she hated. She needn't kill it. She sneaked out the door and continued going silently out to the street.

_Fucking infected_ she thought, her heart beating more lightly.

She saw Roberto on the other side of the street. He raised his thumb to her. Heather nodded.

Suddenly they heard shots from somewhere east.

"The others!" Roberto shouted.

"Let's go" Heather said.

They both ran towards the shots. There were many. This was a shootout. _Hunters_ Heather thought.

They reached the building from where the shots were heard. It was a big workshop- carpentering. They both took out their guns and walked in. The shots were heard from somewhere above them.

"I'll take the left stairs, you take the right" Roberto told Heather.

"Okay carefully." she said.

She climbed up the stairs and hid behind some machinery. She saw Kevin and Edward in the middle of the floor behind some cover too.

"Go to hell!" the man shooting at them shouted.

She only saw the one. There were no other hunters.

"Crazy son of a bitch!" Kevin shouted.

The man shot once more and ran away towards some stairs at the back of the place that led outside to the streets.

"Infected!" Roberto shouted. "Coming up!"

Heather turned around and looked down. Runners and Stalkers.

"Fuck" she said.

"Get to those stairs!" Kevin yelled running towards the stairs that man just went. They all ran as fast as they could, the infected behind them.

"Careful from that asshole" Edward said once they reached the stairs.

"I'll cover you from the infected" Heather told them "You go down"

"No shit you're staying!" Kevin said.

"I'll buy us time-nothing to worry about, I got this!"

"I'll stay with her" Roberto said. "Go, clear us a way!"

Edward and Kevin ran down reluctantly.

Heather took out another gun, one of those she found and aimed at the infected who were running towards them. Both her and Roberto shot them taking them down.

"On your left!" Heather shouted to Roberto.

He took the shot and killed a Runner that was getting close. They heard more shots from behind them.

"Shit!" Roberto said. "More hunters?"

"Go to them" Heather said. "I'll be right behind you."

Roberto obeyed without hesitation. There were only two infected left. Heather ran from the right side of some machines and yelled to them "Hey assholes, over here!". The infected followed her while she ran around, shooting them.

_Shit no bullets_ she thought as she shot a final one to the last infected. She walked to that last one that was lying on the floor, crawling towards her. She took out her knife, stepped on its head and stabbed it.

"Huh" she exhaled looking at the Runner she just killed. She didn't enjoy doing this even after all this time.

BAM! a shot went by her nearly hitting her. She looked up and saw a woman with a gun pointing it on her.

Heather ducked behind a table. That woman was still shooting at her. Half the shots were flying way off target though. Heather crouching, walked behind the table and behind some machines getting closer to her.

"Die you monsters!" she screamed. The shots suddenly stopped. Heather peeked from around.

"Holy shit" she said going behind cover again. The woman took out a shotgun.

Heather ran towards a big machine and hid behind it. She reloaded the gun she held.

The woman saw her and shot the machine.

Heather peeked again and shot the woman. She hit her on the shoulder and she fell down. Heather came from around the machine and walked towards her, pointing the gun at her. The woman saw her and tried to get the shotgun from the floor, sobbing.

"Leave it" Heather warned her.

"You will all burn in hell!" she yelled, tears running down her cheeks and grabbed the shotgun.

BAM! Heather shot her in the head. She took a deep breath, wiping sweat from her forehead. She heard footsteps on the grating from behind her and she turned raising her gun. It was the others. They looked at the woman on the floor.

"You okay?" Roberto asked.

"It was nothing" Heather said in a small voice shaking her head. "You?"

"It's over" Kevin said.

"Alright" Edward said breathing fast. "We uh, keep doing what we were supposed to before…this" he waved his hands tired.

"Okay let's go" Roberto said to Heather. "Let's continue."

After nearly two hours they met back at the pickup truck.

"We got a lot!" Edward said throwing a backpack into the back of the truck. "Let's go home" he said getting into the drivers seat.

Heather sat again at the back with Roberto. And they drove back to their town.

...

It was ten o' clock and she couldn't sleep. Alice was sleeping in the bed peacefully. The only sounds in the room was her breathing. Heather sat again by the window looking out. She told Leonard she would only go out again if it was somewhere safer. Not that she couldn't handle herself but still…too risky. He didn't try to convince her. Besides…she missed Alice. Didn't like leaving her alone.

She looked far away towards the dark countryside. Something was bugging her. Suddenly she saw someone walking into the church far away. No one was allowed to wander at this hour. Who was that? Perhaps Leonard. She bet he was allowed.

Heather looked again towards the dark. That woman at the workshop. Something about her. She called them monsters. Well, they were the ones who started shooting at them, what were they supposed to do, not shoot back? _'You will all burn in hell'_. No other hunter she encountered said anything like that. It felt…weird. It felt too…personal. Heather couldn't help feeling that those words, had something else behind them.

...

A couple of days passed since her little visit to that town. She's been out again only once, a mile from their town just to bring water from a nearby river. Just like Leonard promised. Nothing dangerous. Alice has been enjoying her days here. The playground has become her favorite place. Heather would spend a lot of time there just watching over her.

"No, no, not up there girl!" she shouted as Alice was about to climb a net especially designed for children to climb on. "That-that's for older children honey."

"I'm young?" she asked

"Yeah you're young, when you grow older you'll be climbing those, okay?" Heather told her walking over to her.

"Okay"

"How 'bout a real fast spin on the merry go round huh?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah!" the child said melodically and went over to it.

"Now hold on veeeery tight" Heather told her.

Alice hugged the middle pole and Heather spinned it fast.

"Close your eyes, close your eyes!" Heather shouted to her as she spinned her.

The girl was laughing. After a few moments Heather stopped spinning her.

"Okay give me your hand" she said extending hers.

Alice grabbed it walking to her like she was drunk.

Heather laughed. "You're dizzy" she said smiling.

"Dizzy!" Alice repeated.

"You like that word? Dizzy?"

"Dizzy!" Alice repeated again.

Heather laughed again and kissed Alice on the forehead.

_I'm getting better at this_ she thought.

"Leonard" Heather said as she saw him walking to her.

"Good day to you" he said approaching her.

"Good morning."

"And how is our little girl today?" he asked Alice smiling, holding out a lollipop

Alice was sometimes shy around people and held onto Heather's legs just like now, but when she saw that lollipop she grabbed it.

"Where did you find that?" Heather asked

Leonard gave her a look. "We have everything" he smiled. "The Lord is kind…you don't mind her eating sweets right?"

Heather chuckled. "Oh you know, she eats nothing but sweets but…" she said sarcastically.

Leonard laughed. "You're right."

"What do we say to Leonard Alice?" Heather asked her.

Alice didn't say anything. _Right_ Heather thought. She hasn't taught her manners like that.

"Uh, say thank you to Leonard honey."

Alice still didn't say anything.

"It's alright" he said looking at her smiling.

"We're gonna start practicing that" Heather looked at him.

Leonard nodded to her. "See you at lunch Heather" he told her and walked away.

Heather turned to Alice and unwrapped her the lollipop. "Here you go."

...

They went to their room after lunch. Heather was gonna put Alice to sleep.

"Did you like the food?" Heather asked her. They ate fish. Courtesy of some men who fished them out of the river. "We never ate fish before."

"Yes" Alice said.

"Yeah it was good. Come on hop in!" she added pointing at the bed.

Alice obeyed and she took of her shoes.

"Good girl" Heather told her giving her a pacifier.

"Two" Alice said.

Heather made a funny face and Alice laughed but she did give her the second pacifier. Alice grabbed Heather's hand and laid down closing her eyes. She liked to hold her hand when she was getting to sleep, playing with her fingers. After a while she drifted to sleep. Heather removed her hand and kissed her on the cheek.

...

It was late afternoon and Heather was with Alice at the crop field. Heather was helping out pick up berries with another man.

"Hey honey come on, help us out and I'll give you one to eat!" Heather told Alice who was sitting, drawing on the dirt. She didn't come though.

"Oh leave her there" the man said. "Don't try to draw their attention if they are already busy with something else. That way you can keep your head calm for a while."

"Trust me I was a teacher before all of this" he told Heather when she gave him a look.

"You only distract them when needed. Otherwise just let them do whatever they're doing."

"Hmm…yeah good tip." Heather told him.

"I know…alright" he said getting up slowly. "Oh I'm getting old" he added. "I think we have enough."

"Why don't you work with something else? Taking care of all of this is hard work for someone your age."

"Gardening…is my love" he said smiling. "Wouldn't trade it."

"Alright!" Heather said getting up too.

"Let's take this to Lucy" he said and started walking.

"Hmm" Heather hummed and walked over to Alice. "Okay honey come on, time to go."

Alice got up reluctantly and Heather took her hand. It was burning.

"Hey" Heather said worried kneeling down. She touched her arms and then kissed her forehead. Fever.

"Goddamn" she whispered.

"Something wrong?" the man asked her.

"She's having a fever." Heather told him. "Hey do you mind taking this?" she held out her bag of berries. "I need to go to the pharmacy" she added taking Alice in her arms and getting up.

"Of course, take care of her."

"Thanks" Heather said waking out to the street. She headed towards the little pharmacy of the town.

"Hey" she said to the man sitting on the table. "I need medicine" she told him.

"What's your name?" he asked her getting up and walking towards the counter.

"It's for her not me."

The man looked at Alice. "We…don't have anything for children."

"Nothing?" Heather asked

"I'm sorry…what-what does she have?"

"Fever."

"Hmm" the man said. "I-I have antifever medicine but I don't think giving adult medicine to children is a good idea."

"No it isn't" Heather said.

"Wait" he told her searching under the counter. "Put that under her armpit" he said holding out a thermometer.

Heather did so and after a minute she took it out.

"She's burning. 38.5. Damn."

"Heather" Leonard walked in. "David told me. Is she alright?"

"No she has fever and you have nothing for children" she said. "I had medicine where I was staying before I got here" she told him. "Maybe we can get it?"

"Maybe but now is getting dark" he told her. "Dangerous to go outside."

"I've been out in the dark before" Heather told him.

"I know" he said but he lowered his voice "We have rules Heather. When it's curfew we don't walk outside."

"She's sick" Heather said a bit annoyed.

"Don't worry" he told her smiling. "Maria makes the best herb teas you will ever drink. She can have that fever down in no time to help her sleep through the night. But it won't last long…tomorrow morning you go outside with a couple of my men. There's a pharmacy not too far from here. It's where we get our medicine from. There's medicine for Alice there."

"Alright" Heather said. "That's a plan. Tomorrow morning."

Leonard nodded and gestured her out of the pharmacy.

They walked the street. Heather was gonna take Alice to their room.

"I think it might be food poisoning" Leonard spoke after a while.

Heather looked at him

"Fish sometimes can cause this to children" he explained. "We should have given her something else to eat."

"Dammit" Heather said. "Poisoning can take a day or a week" she said a bit angrily.

"You couldn't have known" he told her putting his hand on her shoulder. "You take her upstairs I'll have Maria brew some tea for her."

"Thank you" Heather said and went up to their room. She put Alice on the bed and sat there with her.

"It's okay baby" she told her patting her on the head. "Maria is gonna make us some tea and it's gonna go away."

Alice didn't respond. She looked weak.

Heather got up and purred some water on a piece of clothing. She sat again on the bed and put it on Alice's forehead.

"Mmm" Alice said negatively.

"It's okay honey, it's gonna help" Heather said.

After a while Maria came up with a teapot. Heather opened the door for her and she put it on the table.

"She's going to be alright, don't worry" she said smiling and looking over at Alice. "You give her some now and try to make her go to sleep."

"Yeah…I know" Heather said. "Thank you Maria."

Maria left the room and Heather prepared a bottle for Alice.

...

Heather wasn't sleeping. She was gonna stay up the night watching over Alice. Her temperature dropped a bit and she was sleeping a lot more calmly.

She shook her head.

_Damn fish_ she thought. She looked at the window blindly. Her eyelids were heavy and she really wanted to sleep but she wouldn't do that. She looked at the town. It was quiet, everybody was fast asleep. Suddenly she saw someone walking up the church again and getting in.

_Who was wandering every night to the church?_ she thought. Why more likely. Then the thing that was bugging her returned. That woman. _'You will all burn in hell'._ It didn't only feel personal but…religious too.

Heather's heart beat a little faster. Did that woman know of this town? _Stop it this ridiculous_ she thought. But was it really?

Heather was too stubborn to let this go. There was something weird and she felt it. She couldn't explain it but she trusted her instincts.

She got up and leaned over Alice kissing her forehead. She was good…for now. She walked over to her backpack. She took her knife from it and put it in her back pocket.

"Shit" she said as the knife fell on the floor. No back pockets with these pants . No pockets at all. She wore a spandex cause she was gardening before. She took it from the floor, put it in her boot, grabbed her backpack and walked out the door.

_I can do this_ she thought. Sneaking was an everyday thing she did. It will only take a bit and she would be back, no harm done. She climbed down the stairs and got out on the street. There was a guard walking. She crouched down and hid behind a barrel. She looked around. She needed to head to the end of the street, take a right and head uphill towards the church.

She crossed to the right side of the street while the guard was walking with his back turned on her. She took that chance and sneaked up the street. When the guard reached the end of the street and was about to turn back, she took a right through an alley between houses. She continued through the alley, turned left and peeked to the street again. Another guard on the street.

_Damn_. There were guards on rooftops too. How was she supposed to get past them? She needed to go right. At the end of the street and a bit further away was the church on a hill. She thought about her next move for a minute.

_Maybe I should head back?_

_No_ she thought. The sewer lines below. She backed up the alley until she found a manhole. She opened it and climbed down the ladder. It was too easy. She followed the narrow, smelly corridor and turned right going underneath the street. She went on for a while counting the distance. Heather found a ladder and climbed on it. This should be the right manhole. She pushed it up and looked out. She passed the guards and was at the end of the street. She even passed the church. She needed to head back a bit, so she got out and took the right side of the street going towards it. Instead of picking up the road that led to the church, she went through an alley between buildings, jumped over the fence and followed the dirt road. There was a guard at the front doors of the church. She decided to go behind the church and find that door which opened to the sacristy. She did but it was locked. She took out her knife and pried open the window next to it, jumping in.

_Breaking and entering into a church_ she thought. She opened the door that led to the rest of the church. There was no one inside it. Heather checked the other rooms too. No one. She half expected to see Leonard praying or something. Maybe whoever was here left. The guard outside the door didn't suggest so though. _And if there is no one in here_ she thought and looked on the floor…_maybe there's someone in the crypt_. Some churches had one. She looked around for any way down. She searched the rooms stomping her leg on the floor.

"Here" she said after some time. She was in the vestry and the floor was hollow.

_Okay wait_ she thought. If anyone was in there what was she going to say? 'Alice is sick and she wanted to pray for her' sounded like a good idea. It wasn't, but she didn't really care.

She lifted the rug that covered the hatch and opened it. There were stairs leading down. She walked down and found herself in a cave like corridor. It had lit candles on the rocks left and right so there was enough light. Someone was down here.

The light from the candles on the rocky surface of the walls created dancing shadows, delivering a creepy and moody atmosphere. Heather continued down the corridor until she reached an area where there were people buried in the walls. Priests? Saints? People could be really creepy sometimes back in the day. She passed that and came out into a room with candles all around. There was a desk up ahead, some boxes piled onto each other, some guns in the far corner and some cell blocks on the left... There was no one down here after all.

"What did you expect to find" she whispered sarcastically. She exhaled and went over to the desk. Papers, maps, a bible. She shook her head feeling stupid. If anyone saw her on the way back she would lose Leonard's trust and probably be 'punished' too.

_Great_ she thought picking up a map. It looked like the countryside's map. All the roads and towns-they were marked.

"Roadblocks…roadblocks" she read. There where roadblocks all over the roads and in the towns. She looked at the town where she and the others went a few days ago. There was a note there. _Couple_ it read.

_What couple?_ she thought. Then she thought of that woman and man. They were a…couple. Leonard knew about them. She looked at other notes and maps. She found one that on it was a marked coal mine. It had dates written by it. One date was of tomorrow. Why would a coal mine be important? She searched more. More roadblocks on maps and lists with a lot of supplies. At the top of every supply list was a number and the name of the street. _That's too many supplies to be found in one road_ Heather thought.

"You shouldn't be in here" a voice from behind her said.

She turned around. It was Leonard. She looked at him and knew she couldn't bullshit him.

"You knew about that couple" she said quietly.

"They were a trouble we had to resolve. You didn't have to worry about it, my men would have taken care of it." he said calmly.

Heather shook her head. "They knew something" she said. "That you were killing people?" she asked raising the map. "Those roadblocks everywhere" she said through gritted teeth. "You ambush people and kill them taking their supplies."

Leonard lowered his head. "We do what we have to do and our Lord protects us."

"You lied to me. You said you help people-"

"Good people" Leonard corrected her. "That's why we helped you that day."

Heather shook her head again. He was lying. _Why did he help them that day?_

"I'm not going to be a part of this" she said.

"I know you won't" he said looking at her. And before she knew it he took a tranquilizer gun from behind him and shot her. She took out the dart arrow from her chest and fell down on the cold floor.

...

Heather woke up. She was lying on her stomach on a cold floor. She pushed of it with a bit of difficulty and sat. She blinked, looking around. It looked like she was still in that crypt…behind a cell. There was a man sitting on a chair with his back on her.

She got up and grabbed the cells feeling a bit woozy. The man turned to look at her.

"Roberto" she said surprised. "Get me out of here" she demanded.

"Can't do that" he said.

"Of course you can, you just open this door." she said angrily.

"I'm sorry Heather. You put us into a difficult position" he said.

"You kill people" she said through gritted teeth. "I want out" she said thinking of Alice. "Alice is ill I need to be with her."

"She's not ill anymore, she's fine today."

Heather looked at him. There was something about his tone. Panic spread over her.

"Where is she?"

"She's where she needs to be" he said and turned his back to her.

_What?_ Heather was confused. She thought about this for a minute. Suddenly she felt like a fool. They planned this…all along Leonard planned this. Why?

"You're gonna take me to her" she said scared.

Roberto didn't answer.

"You hear me?" she shouted. She shook the cells.

"Heather that will not help" he said turning to look at her.

"Take me-son of a bitch you open this door!" she yelled. He acted like he wasn't listening. She backed up. There was nothing she could do. No one could hear her down here and Roberto wasn't gonna open the door any time soon. She raised her hand to her throat. She could feel her heart there like it was ready to come out. She slid down the wall. It was her fault. All of it. How could she be so stupid…_this place wasn't like Elizabeth's…_

She sat there for a lot of time thinking. How would she get out? She didn't have her backpack…_the knife_ she remembered. She reached down her boot. It was still there.

_Okay be calm_ she thought.

She got up and grabbed the cells again.

"Hey could I have some water at least?" she said in a heavy voice.

Roberto turned to look at her.

"Come on, please" she begged.

Roberto looked at her for a moment and went to the desk. He took a glass and filled it with water from the bottle standing there.

Heather backed up a step so he could feel like getting closer to her.

"Here" he said coming close to the cells.

Heather took a step forward and extended her arm through the cells towards the glass. Instead of grabbing the glass though, she grabbed his hand and with the speed of light raised her other hand through the cells and stabbed Roberto in the chest. He didn't have time to notice what even happened.

He let out a breath and Heather pulled him violently closer, hitting him on the cells and grabbing him from the shirt with both hands.

"Where is she?" she asked again furiously.

He was trying to take breaths in but couldn't.

"You…won't find her. Today's the day…" he struggled, choking.

Heather punched him.

"Tell me-NOW!" she yelled.

Roberto let out a last breath and crumbled down. Heather kneeled and searched his pockets hastily. She found keys. She tried an old rusty one on the cell door. It opened. She stepped over him and grabbed her backpack from the desk taking out her gun. _Where would they take her?_ she thought panicked. She searched the desk again for any clues.

"Fuck!" she said angrily after a minute, throwing papers on the floor. She couldn't concentrate. She closed her eyes thinking. After a moment she shot them open. That map with the coal mine. There was a date on it marking today. '_Today's the day…' _Could this be where they held Alice? At a coal mine? If this was planned then, maybe…she had no choice, she had to head there. She searched for that map again and found it. It was north of this town and nearly an hour from here…with a car.

She breathed fast. "Okay, okay." she said trying to think this through.

Heather ran through the cave like corridor, up the stairs and out in the church. She saw that one guard standing out the front door. She went back outside the window she came from. It was dark already. She was in that cell for a whole day… She jumped out the window but stopped, thinking. _I'm gonna need a car. On foot it will take a lot of time._ But no way to get a car and get out from the front gate unnoticed. Unless…

She turned and went back inside the crypt. She reached Roberto and started taking off his clothes. After a while she was dressed as one of the soldiers. She wore his cap and his bandana too.

_Let's hope this works_. She went back up to the church and out that window. The place where they parked their cars was close to the church. She followed the street. There were less guards on the roofs. And no one in the street. She reached the parking lot on the left.

"Hey!" a guard shouted to her through the small room at the parking lot, that you supposedly get a ticket to park your car.

Heather walked casually to him.

"Did Leonard send you?" he asked as she reached him.

She raised her knife before he could say anything else and stabbed him in the throat. He fell down. Heather saw keys dangling from the wall and took the one to the pickup truck. She closed the door of that small room and headed to the car. She got in and started the engine. She drove it out on the street towards the gate, stopping right before it. The guard on top of it looked at her and opened the gate.

She wasn't scared that they would recognize her. Not everybody knew her. Everything seemed okay. She drove out of the gate and stepped on the gas following the road she needed to reach the coal mine.

...

She reached the coal mine in less than half an hour. There were trucks parked out from it. _They were here._

She got out from the car and took out her gun walking towards the entrance. The gate of it was open. There was no one out here. _What where they doing inside a coal mine?..._

She walked through the entrance and continued down following the corridor. It was dark for some minutes until it got brighter. There were candles on the left and right side of the walls, illuminating the place.

Heather's heart beat faster. She needed to find Alice fast. She stepped out to a much bigger area with tracks on the floor and a couple of coal rides. She felt her heart stop. There were bodies, hanged like on a cross, on the walls. One next to the other, decorating the walls. There were more candles beneath them. Heather breathed fast not controlling her breath, feeling a bit sick. _What where they doing?…_ She was frightened more than ever in her life but made herself look around for a way to go. Up ahead were many ways, many tracks leading to different places. This could go really bad if she didn't pick the right way. This place could go deep underground and be a maze. There were only two tracks lit with candles though. She chose the right one and followed it. After a while she entered a bigger area.

"Shit!" she exhaled stopping dead. There were guards patrolling it. But she was one of them too. She kept going putting the gun in her holster, acting normally. The guards didn't notice anything weird. She passed them hearing lots of voices on her left. She continued towards the voices. After a while she realized that this is where the left track, the one she didn't pick, led. She continued going down, through more corridors with lit candles until she reached an opening. It was a big, round room. There were a lot of people from the town, talking to each other. She walked around them. Some were looking at something below them. She followed some tracks leading higher so she could look down too.

"Ugh!" she exhaled frightened. There was an…altar in the middle of a lower floor. Candles lit around the place and Leonard standing next to it, talking to Maria.

Heather rushed out the way she came from, her heart ready to jump out from her chest. _Rituals_ she thought. She needed to find Alice. She wasn't down at the altar but Heather knew she would be soon enough. She wasn't gonna let that happen.

She walked back to where all the guards were patrolling. That place seemed important. She reached it looking around. She tried to keep her cool. But how could she? There were lots of places she could go to and all of them had candles lit. She chose to head even deeper underground. She followed the tracks and took a right. It was a dead end up ahead but there were candles leading to a room on the left. She rushed to it and entered it. As soon as she did she looked away from what she saw. There were candles on the floor and above them big glass jars. Heather couldn't breathe, her eyes got wet and she stood holding onto the wall. She breathed hard. The jars contained…children…dead. Different aged children… She backed away panicked and continued to the other side. She couldn't think, she just kept going. She followed tracks and corridors for quite some time. After a while, she saw a guard in front of her, guarding a door. _She's in there_ Heather thought. She reached the guard and said to him "Leonard needs you. I'll stand guard."

He nodded his head and left. Heather waited a moment and entered the room.

"Alice!" she whispered. She was at the far end of the room lying on a bed. She was wearing a red dress of some kind. Heather reached her and kneeled down to her. She was asleep? Heather put her fingers on her throat. She had a pulse. _She was drugged_. Heather grabbed her, hugging her tightly.

"I'm sorry baby" she told her sobbing. "I'm sorry." She stayed there for a moment and then she got up.

"I'm getting us out of here" she said. She didn't know how she was going to do that but she would. Heather turned around and saw Leonard at the door. He was alone.

"It's time Heather" he told her calmly.

Heather shook her head not believing. "Get out of my way" she told him harshly.

"This is the only way" he said. "The only way this will all stop."

"Wha-sacrificing children?"

"God is punishing us" he told her. "With this…disease. He speaks to me" he said wild eyed. "The apocalypse is upon us and only by continuing doing this, it will all stop."

Heather took a moment before saying "You're insane. You all are."

"You will give me the child" he said calmly. "I must do what I have to do."

She took out her gun and pointed it on him. "Get out of my way" she said again furiously.

"How are you going to get out?" he asked her. "You won't make it out alive if you shoot me."

He was right. They were gonna hear the shot. She put Alice on the bed still pointing the gun on Leonard. She looked at his belt. There was a ceremonial dagger hanging from it.

"Throw your dagger on the floor-now!" she said hastily.

Leonard did so without hesitating. Heather leaned down and took it.

"Turn against the wall" she demanded. "Do it!"

Leonard put his hands up on the wall turning his back on her. Heather quickly put the gun in her holster and raised the dagger, ready to strike him. Suddenly Leonard turned around slashing Heather with a butcher knife in her stomach. He had it hidden under his shirt.

Heather staggered back into the table, dropping the dagger. Leonard launched at her with the knife but she grabbed his arm. Leonard was pushing the knife with both arms hard onto her face. Heather wouldn't last long. She rolled right, falling with her back on the floor. Leonard was again launching at her, when she kicked him on the leg. He groaned in pain taking a step back and Heather took the chance getting up and running to him. She pushed him on the wall and bit him on the side of the throat holding the hand with the knife away from her.

He groaned in pain but managed to grab her from the hair with his other hand and pushed her away, throwing her on the floor. Heather fell down but saw the dagger. She picked it up and stabbed Leonard in the leg before he could recover from the bite. He dropped his knife growling in pain. Heather got up and stabbed him in the chest, right at the heart. She pushed the dagger deep inside of him, looking him in the eyes. Leonard spit blood and dropped down dead immediately. Heather stood looking ahead on the wall where Leonard's eyes were a second ago. She started taking deep breaths and walked over to Alice. She grabbed her and walked out of the room. She needed to get out before they realized Leonard was taking too long. The cut in her stomach wasn't deep but hurt like hell. It was burning but she had to move. She still needed to go through all the guards and she didn't know how to do this.

No she did. She crouched down and put Alice on the floor as gently as she could. She searched in her backpack and found one. _Smoke bomb_.

It wasn't gonna cover all the area but she had no choice. She was gonna run. She grabbed Alice and walked through the corridors heading up. She reached the place with the guards. Before anyone saw her holding Alice, she threw the smoke bomb and it exploded.

"Hey what's going on?" a guard shouted.

Heather ran as fast as she could, hoping there was still no one at the entrance of the mine. And there wasn't. She ran to the pickup truck exhausted, opened the passenger's door and put Alice on the seat. She hopped in the driver's seat and started the engine. She turned the wheel and drove away.

She drove heading nowhere in particular but as far away as possible. She couldn't believe it. All of this…was planned. From the very beginning at the store where Leonard 'found' them. He has fooled her, brainwashed her like all the other people in the town. She kept driving for a lot of time until the car began to slow down. No gas.

"Shit" Heather said. The car stopped. Heather closed her eyes feeling her stomach. She had blood all over her. She tried to wipe Leonard's blood from her mouth but it already dried. She turned to look at Alice. She got out of the car and opened the passenger's door, grabbing Alice and starting to walk. She was exhausted, sleepy and hurt. She looked at Alice and her eyes got wet.

"I'm sorry" she whispered. "I love you."

She hugged her tightly and kept on walking on the road in the darkness with the starry sky above them. But the darkness didn't feel dangerous anymore. The darkness wasn't a threat. The infected weren't a threat. Outside that town nothing felt like a threat anymore. Not anymore.


	6. A LAST LIE - OCTOBER

OCTOBER

"I found something for you" Heather said to Alice

They were in a huge library in its back room where all the children's book were. Alice went over to Heather jumping.

"The Red Riding Hood" Heather said showing her the book. Alice didn't look amused by it.

"Okay, no then." Heather said putting it on a shelf. It was good since it had a wolf involved.

They walked out the room having taken some books for Alice and headed to some other shelves.

"Joke section" Heather read picking up a book.

"Mamania" said the girl after a moment holding out a cookbook

"Oh, I don't want to look at that" Heather said thinking of how hungry she was. "Put it back honey."

_Click_.

"Sshh" said Heather to Alice immediately crouching to her.

"Bad wolf" she whispered to her.

She grabbed her in her arms and looked over to the rest of library. There were a lot of infected coming in. _Where the fuck did they come from?_ She took out a vial from her pocket and made Alice drink some.

"Ssh it's okay" Heather told her.

She walked silently back into the children's room where she saw a small storage room. She walked to it and saw keys dangling from the door. She put Alice down and kneeled to her.

"Honey hide here okay, I'll count to ten and I'll come find you."

"Okay" Alice said.

Heather left a flashlight with her and closed the door, locking it and taking the keys with her. She was gonna have to deal with the infected before they could get out. She sneaked to the rest of the library and hid behind a shelf. There were at least ten infected. Of every kind.

_I'm gonna have to try and take them out_ she thought. Exhaling, she took out a hammer from her belt and her knife from the back pocket of her jeans. She walked towards the right shelves of the library, hiding behind them. She was gonna try to take out the Runners first, in case they saw her. There was one coming towards her. She came from behind the shelf and knifed him in the throat.

_One down_ she though.

Heather continued walking silently, going behind another Runner. She knifed this one in the neck and he dropped dead too.

"Huh" she exhaled trying to stay focused.

_Click_

She turned around and there was a Clicker walking behind her. She moved a bit forward avoiding it.

_Shit!_ she thought. There was a Stalker in front of her. She turned to the Clicker and decided to kill it, otherwise the Stalker would mess up everything. She raised her knife ready to strike when a Runner came from behind the shelf and stood next to the Clicker.

Heather froze. She was about to take a step back but the Runner turned to her.

"Shit!" she said as the Runner made a breathtaking noise and started running to her. Heather ran to the opposite direction towards the Stalker. She avoided it running behind a shelf and reached the entrance of the library. All the infected were startled. Maybe she could draw their attention away from here.

"Hey…you!" she shouted. They noticed her and as they started running, she turned around and ran like hell. She ran through the street when she saw some houses on fire up ahead. She took a right and then a left going through the parallel street. She passed the burning houses on her left and saw a theater on the right. The entrance was barricaded but she found a small opening and squeezed her way through. She ran to the middle of the room and stood there looking at the way she came from. She could hear the infected outside but no one came in. They must have lost her.

_Click_

She turned around.

"What do you think you're doing?" a man asked her, his gun pointed on her.

"Take it easy" she said raising her hands. "I'm just…trying to avoid infected, nothing else."

"Yeah I noticed, you led them all here."

"Okay" Heather said a bit scared thinking of Alice. "I'll just go back outside, no harm done okay?"

"You nuts woman?" he asked looking puzzled. He lowered his gun. "Come on let's find a way out."

Heather took her gun out instead and pointed it at him.

He looked at her. "If you're gonna point that on me you better take the shot."

Heather stood there for a moment but lowered her gun too.

"Come on." he said again and ran through the theater.

"Do you know where you're going?" Heather asked

"No idea" he replied.

They ran through a corridor on the right and up some stairs looking for an exit.

"Ssh" he said pointing a finger to Heather. "You hear that?"

"Yeah. It's coming from the room on the left."

"It's the theatre" he said.

"I don't care what it is" Heather whispered. "Look" she pointed ahead of them "An emergency exit."

They both walked silently to it. The man tried to open the door.

"It's locked" he said.

"What?" Heather said.

"Someone blocked the exit from the outside" he said trying to push it more.

"The entrance was blocked too-shit someone barricade infected inside."

"This town is full of them" the man said.

_Great_ Heather thought. _Would have been good to know that beforehand_.

"Listen" he turned to her. "Let's work together find a way out okay? There's uh, there have to be emergency stairs somewhere on the top floors. Maybe those aren't blocked off."

"Maybe" Heather said. "The stairs" she said and they walked to the stairs leading on higher floors.

"Damn there's infected up here too" Heather whispered once they reached the first floor.

"Be quiet" the man told her "Let's find those emergency stairs."

They walked through the corridor. On the left side were balconies and some infected could be heard from them. They walked along the wall to the back of the floor. They found the stairs. The man tried to open the door.

"Blocked too" he spat.

Heather shook her head. "All the exits are probably blocked." She thought for a moment. "Let's head to the roof."

The man agreed and together they walked up some stairs again to the next floor.

"Gonna have to jump no other choice" Heather said. Some of the stairs were destroyed creating a hole.

"Ladies first" the man said.

"Huh" Heather exhaled, took some steps back and run. She jumped and landed on the higher stairs.

"Shit!" she said. The stairs creaked. They looked at each other for a moment. "Come on your turn" Heather said.

"Phh" the man said exhaled. "I regret eating all those cans" he said taking a few steps back and running too. He made the jump just as the stairs creaked more. Heather pulled him by his jacket throwing him away from the stairs as they gave down.

"Holy shit!" he said getting up. "Thanks."

"They heard us" Heather said urgently. "Run!"

They ran as fast as they could through the corridor to the last staircase. They reached it and climbed it, this one was intact. The man took out his gun and shot some infected in their way of the third floor.

"There should be a staircase leading to the roof" he said. "At the end of the corridor?"

Heather took out her gun as well and ran. A Clicker appeared in front of her and she shot him. The man cleared the way ahead of them while Heather shot some infected following them.

"It's open" the man said reaching the door. "Go!" he said holding the door open for Heather to go through.

They both ran up to the door of the roof. The man tried to open it but it was locked. He shot the lock and they burst through it.

"Here" Heather said taking out a metal pipe from her backpack.

The man grabbed it and stuck it between the handle of the door, backing away.

"That's not gonna hold at all" he said running towards the edge of the roof. "We can jump on the opposite roof" he said.

"No, here" Heather shouted to him. She found a plank and carried it to the edge. She put its one side on this roof, and the other to the opposite roof.

"Go" the man told her. "Fast."

Heather crossed the plank as fast as she could without falling. She reached the opposite roof just as the plank broke. She turned around.

"Uh" the man started "I'm gonna have to jump."

"Are you sure?" Heather asked..

"Yeah, just grab me if-"

BAM! the door of this roof behind Heather burst open and three Clickers came out and behind them two Stalkers.

"Fuck!" she said pointing her gun at them. She shot one but her gun had no more bullets left.

She didn't have time to search her backpack, no time to help that man, she wasn't even sure she had time to save her own life. She ran away from the infected going around the roof until she found outside emergency stairs on one side of it.

"Hey!" she heard the man shout to her. She couldn't do anything for him. She ran down the emergency stairs some infected following her. _Sorry_ she thought. _I have to get to Alice_. She jumped down the last flight and ran out to the street. The infected that had followed her before from the library were gone, somewhere beyond the theater. She took a left and headed back. After a while she stopped leaning on a wall catching her breath. This town was bad, they needed to get out of it, go around it. She searched her backpack, found more clips and reloaded her gun. She took one last breath and jogged back to the library. She turned right but stopped immediately. There were more infected in the street. She was gonna have to go around them. She saw an alley on her left and took it. She was behind some buildings but she should see the library soon on her right.

"Stop!" she heard from behind her.

She turned around and it was that man breathing heavily, pointing his gun again at her.

"Okay wait" Heather started raising her hands "I can-"

"You left me there" he said angrily.

"I can explain, please-"

"No need to" he said.

"Wait…wait please" she said a bit desperately. If he killed her, Alice would be left in a fate worse than death.

"I had to, I-I have a little girl."

"Ha!" he chuckled "Yeah I have too" he said sarcastically raising his gun to her head.

"Please, you kill me she dies." Heather said her eyes starting to get wet. "I'm sorry…I'm sorry."

"You would have done the same" she said quietly after a moment. "You would have done the same, for a less of a reason."

The man looked at her reading her face.

"I'm the only one she has…" Heather said. "Please."

The man looked at her for a moment and slowly lowered his gun. He exhaled angrily shaking his head.

"You left her alone?" he asked.

"Not the first time" Heather said putting her hands down her heart beating fast. She thought he would shoot her.

The man looked at her for a moment and said "Let's go."

Heather didn't move. "You're not coming with me" she said.

"Look" he started "If I wanted to hurt you, I already would have."

"Yeah I lived through that one before" Heather said.

They stood there for a moment until they heard some creepy breathing close to them.

Heather needed to get to Alice before any infected saw her and followed her.

"I swear" she said through gritted teeth "you try _anything_-"

"I won't" he said and rushed to her.

Heather took lead and turned right. A bit further away was the library on the left.

"Ssh" she said. They reached the front doors. "Damn, I thought I led them all away." There were still some infected inside.

"Alright" Heather said and crouching she walked in the library. "Let's take them out it's only a few."

"Okay" the man agreed.

Heather walked towards the right side of the library behind some shelves while the man went to the left side. There was a Clicker standing there moving its arms weirdly. Heather took out her knife and hammer from the belt and stuck the knife in the Clickers back, while hitting it with the hammer on the head. She stepped over it and saw a Runner in the middle of the room. Crouching behind a shelf she took a book and threw it somewhere close to her. The Runner heard it and walked towards the sound manically. Heather came behind the shelf from its other side, going behind the Runner and stuck the knife in its throat. It fell dead. She saw the man approaching her.

"I think that's all of them" he said looking around.

"Yeah" Heather said and walked to the storage door where Alice was hidden. She took out the keys and unlocked the door. Alice was sitting on the floor a bit sleepy.

"Alright honey" Heather said picking her up in her arms. "Let's go."

"You really locked her in that room?" the man asked.

"We survived for a long time doing this" Heather said. "Listen, do you know a way out of this town?" she asked the man.

"Um" he thought "we can take the highway. It's not far from here."

"You're coming with us?" Heather asked

"Well I'm not gonna stay in this town that's for sure" he said.

"We're going our separate ways" Heather said.

"As you wish" the man said raising his arms "But let's just get out of here."

Heather reluctantly followed him out.

"Okay there's the highway" he said pointing far away. "The road ahead is blocked so we're gonna have to go around."

"Let's do this" Heather said quietly and they both started walking a bit fast, towards the highway.

...

They were walking on the highway. No infected up here.

"Is she okay?" the man asked Heather, looking at Alice.

"She's fine" Heather said hugging Alice tighter.

"I'm surprised you managed this long" he said.

Heather didn't like this. It reminder her too much of someone else.

"So where are you headed" she asked trying to change the subject.

The man exhaled "I'm…I'm not sure" he said. "I'm looking for someone."

"Hmph" Heather said.

"Look…I understand you won't trust me. But I'm not the bad guy here."

Heather shook her head not answering.

Suddenly a noise was heard from one of the cars. A Stalker was inside. It saw them and started hitting its head on the window, trying to get out.

"Okay let's go" the man said and they walked faster.

They reached the part of the highway which led out of the town and they took the exit right.

"This is where we part ways" Heather said making an emphasis that she didn't want him around.

Before the man could say anything they heard a shot somewhere close to them.

"Hunters!" she said crouching behind a car. The man followed her. She opened the car door and put Alice inside.

"What are you doing?" the man asked.

"I'm not risking her" Heather said harshly taking out her gun. She stayed crouched and went behind another car. She peeked over it. There were some hunters with a truck. About ten of them.

"God dammit" she whispered. She looked over at the man who went behind another car too. He nodded to her. The hunters jumped down from the truck.

"Find them" a hunter said.

"I saw them getting behind one of those cars there" another one said.

_Shit, don't go there!_ Heather thought.

She walked behind some cars until she was a fit further away from the one Alice was. She had to distract them from there. She aimed at a hunter and took the shot.

BAM! the hunter went down.

"Over there!" a hunter shouted.

Heather crouched low behind the car as shots were hitting it. She heard more shots directed somewhere else, probably where that man was. She took the chance and sneaked behind another car. She peeked over it and started shooting too. She killed about three of them before they shot at her too.

_That was too close_ she thought. She leaned over the side of the car when someone shot her arm.

"ARGH!" she yelled holding her arm.

"I think I got her" a hunter shouted. He walked towards the car where she was, and Heather came from behind it shooting him. She crouched back down breathing heavily. After a moment she got up and looked. There was one hunter going to Alice's car. She jumped from behind the car and shouted "Hey asshole!" as the hunter opened the door of the car. He turned to look at her but then looked back inside the car. Suddenly someone hit Heather on the back of her head, making her fall down. She looked up, her vision blurry, towards Alice's car and saw that man shooting the hunter and grabbing Alice from his hands. Heather had one more blow to the head while she was down and everything went black.

...

She woke up feeling her head. She opened her eyes with difficulty as she felt dizzy.

"Hey it's okay, take it easy" the man said approaching her. Heather opened her mouth to say something.

"She's over there. She's sleeping" he said pointing on the couch.

Heather looked at the couch. Alice was there, obviously asleep. She looked at him and then around her.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"We're in a motel" the man said sitting back into his chair. "I drove us in their truck, found this motel up the road"

Heather didn't say anything. She was trying to hold her head from falling. She looked at her arm. It was bandaged. She turned to look at the man.

"I saw you protecting her" she said in a small voice.

He waved his hand like it was nothing.

Heather took a moment and sat up. She was taking deep breaths hoping to make the headache go away. She turned to look at the man again.

"What's your name?"

"Ish" he said.

"Ish" Heather repeated. "I don't know what's your plan…but thank you."

"I told you my plan" he said leaning back on his chair. "I'm looking for someone."

"Right" Heather said.

"And you?" he asked

"What me?"

"Your name" he said.

"Oh. Heather" she said.

"Nice to meet you Heather. Um, are you sure she's okay?" he asked looking over at Alice. "She looked a bit ill…"

"She's not ill" Heather replied. After a moment she said. "Is this place safe?"

"Yeah, I think this is where they slept. The hunters I mean. There's no one in the motel now."

Heather nodded.

"Hey uh…the truck's got gas in it. And some barrels full of gas at the back of it" Ish said. "We can drive to wherever you're headed. Then I take it and head to…wherever I'm headed."

Heather thought about this. She had a hard time trusting anyone but Ish saved their lives. And didn't shoot her back at the theater and the alley. She could use the truck anyway. It would get her a lot faster to the quarantine zone.

"Alright" she said. "We head east in the morning."

...

"Haha, hey no, you sing me that song and I'll give it to you" Ish was saying to Alice. He was driving the truck on the highway with Heather beside him and Alice. Alice was trying to grab from his hands a candy he found in the truck. She made a grimace when she couldn't reach it.

"She's shy around strangers" Heather explained.

"Well then" Ish started grabbing a toy bear from the seat. "Mr. Bear is going to eat it, he looks very hungry" he teased looking sideways to her.

"Phh" said the girl then slowly and too shy started singing in a very quiet voice.

"Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way..." she sang and stopped too shy to continue.

"Okay, okay you earned it" Ish said smiling and gave her the candy.

Heather unwrapped it for her.

"You're uh…" she started "You seem to know your way around children."

"Yeah, I…I've been around some" he said.

Heather didn't pursue the subject. Ish didn't seem like a bad guy. In fact Heather thought he was too honest. He kept teasing Alice and smiled to her, trying to keep a light mood. Alice was enjoying his silliness.

The drove for the whole day through the highway, taking some exits here and there to follow some other roads when the highway had obstacles. After long hours of driving Ish stopped.

The highway was cut off.

"Huh gonna have to back up. Take an exit-"

"We're close" Heather said. She was looking far away towards the wall of the quarantine zone. It looked small from this distance. "It's some miles away."

"That's where you're headed?" he asked

"Hmm" said Heather.

"And how exactly are you getting in?" he asked.

"I got my ways" Heather replied.

"Alright" he said after a moment. He was ready to back up when Heather spoke.

"Wait. Huh…" she exhaled. "You don't need to go any further" she told him. "The whole area ahead is bombed anyway. There's no way you can drive through the streets. And there's also the chance of military." she looked at him. "I'm going on foot."

"Are you sure?" he asked looking a bit worried.

"Yeah."

She opened her door grabbing Alice and got out of the truck. Ish got out too.

_Gonna have to climb this down_ Heather thought approaching the edge of the road.

She turned to Ish and nodded turning to look at Alice. "Honey we're going for a walk, say bye to Ish."

"Bye-bye" Alice said.

Ish grinned. "You take care of her."

"I will" Heather said. "Good luck with whoever you're looking for" she added.

"Huh, yeah…" he said a bit grimly. He looked hesitant for a bit. "We got separated a long time ago. I haven't found her since." He didn't look much hopeful.

Heather didn't know what to tell him. She said instead "Well um…thank you, for your help."

"Good luck Heather" he said and turned around walking to the truck.

Heather stood looking at his back as he walked away but said after a moment.

"A few years back…I was looking for someone too." Ish turned to look at her. "There've been sometimes I felt like maybe I was too hopeful." she looked at him nodding. "But I found her." She turned to look at Alice. "She's hers."

They stood there for a moment looking at each other.

"You will find her" Heather reassured him.

Ish took a moment before he spoke. "Thank you" he said and went back into the truck, backing it away, waving to them and leaving.

Heather climbed down the ruins of the highway and continued walking. It was going to get dark soon so she had to find a place to stay. She walked for a while beneath the highway. The whole place seemed eerie being so empty and destroyed. She avoided big cities, but now she had no choice if she wanted to go to the zone.

She crossed to the right side of the highway. A bit further on the right was a little neighborhood with some houses and behind them a river. She walked to the street where the houses where. It was quiet. She picked one house and decided to check it out. She turned down to look at Alice.

"I'm gonna need you to be quiet now okay?"

"Okay" Alice said whispering too.

Heather grabbed her by the hand and walked up the stairs to the house. All of them looked barricaded. She walked around it looking for a way in and found a broken window on its side. She got in taking Alice with her. She opened the door to her right. It was a bathroom.

"Baby get in here and hide okay? I'll come find you in a bit."

"Mamania-" Alice started.

"No, no it's your turn. Go on" Heather whispered. Alice ran into the shower to hide and Heather closed the door.

She walked silently inside the house. It looked clear. She checked the kitchen, the living room and headed to the second floor.

She heard a Clicker inside one of the rooms. She took her knife out and walked silently towards that breathing sound. She found it inside the bedroom and sneaking behind it, she stabbed it in the neck killing it. She went out of the bedroom and searched the rest of the rooms. They were empty. She went back to the Clicker and dragged it out of the bedroom into the office. She climbed down the stairs and headed to the bathroom.

"Found you" she said to Alice dragging the curtain of the shower back.

The girl laughed and ran at Heather.

"Come on" Heather said quietly taking her in her arms. She went back up into the bedroom and closed the door. She locked it and let Alice down. She crossed to the bathroom. There were bottles of water these people obviously used for showering.

She thought about this for a minute.

"Alice?" she shouted to her. "Come here."

Alice approached her with a silly grimace.

"Let's get a bath" Heather said.

...

Alice was clean. At least one of them was after all this time. They were gonna follow the highway again but it was impossible. The whole place was destroyed. They were gonna have to go through the city. It was quiet. Nothing to find in these areas after the bombing. Not even hunters. Just some infected.

Heather noticed a fire station and decided to check it out. Alice walked beside her holding her hand. She got into the office on the left. Nothing but papers. She walked further in where they kept the fire trucks. There was only one left. She checked some drawers, some desks but nothing useful. She walked to the fire truck. There were supposed to be small doors on its side with necessary stuff for the firemen. She tried prying some open. In one of them she found an axe.

_This will do_ she thought and walked out the fire station. They continued walking, taking a right to another street. They were gonna have to find a way to head back towards the highway. They climbed ruins of broken streets, took some turns through alleys and ended up to a dead end.

_Damn_ Heather thought. There was a parking lot to the left with more broken roads. She went over to it.

No way down she said looking at the huge hole it created. There was a half destroyed building next to the parking lot.

"Maybe thought here?" she whispered to herself. She decided to go through it, maybe there was a way to the other side.

"Okay" she said kneeling to Alice. She took a vial out of her pocket and untapped it.

"Mmm" said Alice negatively.

"It's okay honey, remember this will keep you safe from the bad wolves." Heather said nicely.

Alice reluctantly drank it.

"Okay let's go" Heather said and grabbed her. She walked through a blown away part of the building that led to its first floor. It had lots of desks. She walked between them, turning right to the corridor. It was dark. She turned her flashlight on and continued. Hopefully there are no infected. Fat chance. The floor ahead was destroyed and she took a right into some other offices. She walked looking around for anything useful. She ducked, going through a hole in a wall and walked to a bigger room. Half of it was blown apart and she could see the street she needed to head to. But there was no way down. She found some stairs on the left and took them down. She reached the ground floor and tried to open the door to, probably the reception, but it was blocked from the other side.

_Dammit, so close_ she thought. She looked around her. There was an elevator and the stairs she just got down from. They seemed to be leading to a lower floor.

'P' it read on the wall.

"Underground parking" Heather said. She didn't like the idea. Places like that had infected. But all other roads were blocked and she didn't want to head deeper into the city. She thought about this and went over to the elevator. She opened the doors just a bit, with difficulty. It looked safe.

"Alice come on honey" she told her, putting her inside the elevator. Alice didn't argue. She was already getting sleepy. Heather pulled again the doors of the elevator close, left only a small opening. She took out her axe and headed down to the parking, opening the door leading to it. It was utter darkness and as predicted she could hear infected. She walked silently towards some cars. There were a couple of Clickers and a bunch of Runners. Nothing she couldn't handle. She took out from her backpack a Molotov she made back in the house with some supplies and lit it. She threw it right at the feet of some Runners and it burst causing them to burn. The rest didn't see her nor heard her. She sneaked behind a Runner, while the others were distracted from the fire, and killed it. There was only one Runner and the two Clickers left. She banged on the car she was behind with the axe and went to its side hiding. The infected scattered through the place trying to get to the noise they heard. They reached the car and stood there making uncontrollable moves and taking creepy breaths in. After some moments they scattered again, walking nowhere in particular. Heather followed a Clicker from behind and shoved the axe into its head. The Runner was heading into a corner so Heather went behind some cars and followed the last Clicker from behind. She slashed her axe into the side of its neck. She looked around. The Runner stood there by the corner whimpering and Heather walked to it casually. She was a few feet behind it when it turned, but as it did Heather slashed the axe and cut off its head.

"Huh" she exhaled. _That's it_. She walked to the end of the parking lot looking for the exit.

_Damn. Spores._

There were spores up ahead. She took her oxygen mask out and wore it. She walked into the spores looking around for any infected. She climbed some debris that had fallen from the ceiling and walked a bit more. There it was. A ramp that led out to the outside parking lot. If she followed this it would lead them out of here, up on that street she saw from above.

She turned around and headed back to Alice, leaving the hideous cordyceps and spores behind her.

She opened the elevator doors and got Alice out. She was half asleep but hugged Heather by the neck.

"Alright honey we're almost out."

She headed back down the stairs and into the parking lot. She took out another oxygen mask from her backpack, one she stole from a soldier, and wore it to Alice. She tightened it as always and then wore hers too. She walked into the spores and climbed over the debris again.

She only took a few steps before she heard a loud growling noise from her left. Then suddenly she felt herself flying through the air and landing on her side.

"Ugh!" she yelled in pain as she fell, her chest hurting. "Alice?" she shouted frightened, trying to get up fast. She wasn't holding her anymore, she felt her leave her arms when the Bloater hit her.

Heather got up taking the shotgun from her back. She couldn't see Alice so the only thing she could do for her, was kill the Bloater, before it tore them apart. She ran away from it and turned around shooting it. It was growling and made angry moves. Heather kept shooting it. It staggered back but made a loud noise and launched at her. She ran around the parking lot avoiding it and shooting it. She wasted all the shotgun ammo on it and it still was alive.

Heather took out her gun and started shooting it. The Bloater hit its arms angrily on a car nearby, smashing its hood and then tried launching at Heather again. He was slow, so Heather just ran around. After a couple of shots it fell dead, making the ground shake.

Heather took deep breaths through her mask, panicked.

"Alice?" she shouted. "Baby?" she searched the floor trying to find her.

_Please let her be okay_ she thought, _please_. She finally found her lying on the floor near a car. She picked her up and hugged her, running to the ramp that led out to the parking lot.

_She was okay, she was okay_ Heather thought. She got out into the parking lot and ran to the end of it towards the street. She stopped at the gate, catching her breath and looked at Alice. Then she lost her breath. Her eyes watering, she touched with a trembling hand Alice's mask. The glass was broken.

"Baby…" she said slowly. She took it off with her shaking hand, looking at Alice. She had some cuts on her face from the glass.

"Baby" she said again touching Alice's face and then putting her fingers to her throat. She was breathing. She was unconscious but alive.

"You're-you're okay" Heather said her voice trembling. "You-you're okay" she kept saying trying to calm herself.

She heard a thunder. It was going to rain soon. _I have to find shelter_ she thought trying to not think about what just happened. She started running towards the highway on the right. She reached it, crossed it going to the opposite side where there was a park. She kept running outside of the park not actually thinking much. There was a marina on the right, right after the park, no boats. She followed the pier just as some raindrops started falling. There was a building on the pier, a café. Maybe they could hide here for now. She walked in, kicking the door open. There were some infected in it. Heather took out her gun, still holding Alice, and started furiously shooting them not even caring. She got a few as more came down from the second floor. She put Alice on a sofa by the door and took out her axe. A Runner came running at her but she slashed him. She shot a Clicker in the head and run towards another one sticking her axe into its throat. One Runner looked at Alice but Heather ran to it, pushing it to the wall and hitting it with the axe several times. She turned around. There was no one else. She went to the sofa and picked Alice, heading to the second floor. It was someone's house.

She put Alice on the couch as gently as she could, her hands shaking and went to check the rest of the rooms. They were empty. She closed the door that led up here, pushing a big cabinet in front of it. Heather was out of breath but she ran to Alice kneeling to her. She grabbed her small hands into hers. She was burning.

"No…no it's…it's okay baby" she said getting up and going to the bathroom. She turned on the faucet. No water of course. She punched the wall and got out thinking. She took out her water bottle from her backpack and poured some on a piece of clothing. She crouched back to Alice wiping the blood from her face just as she started waking up. As soon as she opened her eyes she started crying.

"Hey, hey it's okay, it's just some scratches" Heather was telling her patting her on the hair.

"You're okay, look" she told her showing her the piece of clothing. "I'm making you clean again baby." But Alice didn't listen she just cried. Heather took her into her arms hugging her and kissing her on the forehead.

"It's gonna go away baby. I promise." she said trying to push away the one thought that was trying to pierce her brain.

But it didn't get better. After a few hours Alice was burning horribly. Heather was putting that piece of clothing on her forehead to cool her down, but it wasn't helping. Nothing was.

Heather pulled back Alice's t-shirt and looked at her chest. It was reddish and she had trouble breathing. Her eyes got red too, but she wasn't crying. She just lay there too weak for anything.

Heather was by her, holding her hand, tears trickling down her cheeks. There was nothing she could do. And she felt nothing, as if all her emotions were wiped out except for pain and a sick feeling in her stomach-guilt. Her whole body was numb. It's like she didn't even exist. She wasn't prepared for this. She didn't want to go through this. No one should.

She looked at Alice, who was getting worse by the minute and then turned away. She couldn't look at her. It was too painful, she wanted to avoid the truth. But soon Alice would…Heather couldn't see that. She wasn't going to allow that.

She made herself let go of Alice's hand and with a lot of difficulty, as if an invincible force was pulling her back, she reached her backpack and took a clip. With a trembling hand she reloaded her gun. Then she took out her knife from her pocket.

She put the gun down for a moment and patted Alice's hair, tears falling down from her eyes.

"It's gonna be okay" she whispered in a very heavy voice that barely came out. "I'll be with you…all the way" Heather sobbed and slashed her wrist with her knife. Blood started coming out and she picked her gun with the other hand. She pointed it at Alice's head. She aimed there for a few moments and closed her eyes. She couldn't look…but her finger didn't move towards the trigger. She didn't have enough strength to move it. She opened her eyes and glanced at Alice bursting in tears, dropping the gun. She grabbed Alice with one hand and dragged her close to her hugging her and crying. She reached in her backpack taking out a bandage. She wrapped it tight around her slashed wrist and hugged Alice again, lying with her on the couch.

No one was going to take her away from her. No one.

...

Heather woke up with a start. She opened her eyes wide, a bit afraid. There was daylight coming from the window. She looked down and she saw Alice in her arms. They slept the whole night like this.

"Baby?" Heather said scared, shaking Alice a bit. Alice hummed negatively.

Heather slid down the couch, crouching and putting Alice to lay on the couch gently. She looked at her. She seemed…fine. Her eyes weren't red, she was breathing normally and, Heather raised her t-shirt, she wasn't reddish either. Heather grabbed her small hands. Normal temperature.

"Honey wake up, wake up" Heather told her hastily.

Alice slowly opened her eyes. They had a normal look. She didn't seem ill at all. Heather grabbed Alice in her hands kissing her forehead but Alice pushed her away annoyed.

"Okay" she breathed, her eyes wet.

After a moment Alice stretched her hands and feet and got up as if nothing was wrong. She looked sleepy but she started jumping on the couch.

"Crema, crema!" she begged happily.

Heather wasn't reacting. She glanced at Alice with a slightly open mouth and looked away nowhere in particular. She couldn't believe it. She just stared blindly ahead, still with her mouth open, breathing slowly, trying to take everything in. Alice slid down the couch and went towards the table in the room, climbing onto the chair.

"Crema mamania?" she repeated.

Heather turned to look at her. After a moment she got up breathing deeply and went mindlessly towards her backpack. She stood over it, her hands over her mouth, breathing into them, shaking a bit. She didn't even expect waking up. She was ready just to, 'move on' with Alice. It all felt like a bad dream…she took another breath and kneeled to search for the baby crème in her backpack.

...

After about an hour they got out of the café. It was past lunch time, they slept in it seemed. The whole place smelled wet, from the rain. It was a refreshing smell, the one where you can smell the trees, the grass, the mud.

"Mamania" Alice said pointing at a bird in the sky.

"That's a seagull" Heather told her. She was holding her in her arms.

"Seagull" Alice repeated and waved her hands rapidly imitating the wings of the bird.

"Yeah birds can fly really high, just like that" Heather said.

Alice looked at it happily while it flew around. Heather just held her, staring at her. Whatever happened, she couldn't explain it. Alice breathed the spores but…they didn't affect her? Did it act like any normal flu on her or will it come back? Heather was just given a second chance to keep her safe. She would protect her at all costs. She kissed her on her forehead, closing her eyes smelling that nice scent of the world.

"Alright honey" she said after a minute. "We gotta keep going." She walked through the pier and took a right.

They walked through a field reaching a large empty space on her left. There was a huge gas tank in the middle of it. Ahead she could see a bridge she needed to cross. The place seemed empty and quiet. She didn't expect any infected here, this place was deserted even before the outbreak. She reached the bridge and crossed it. In the middle of it, she stopped looking at her right, far ahead.

"We're close" she told Alice.

She was looking at the university. University of Massachusetts, Boston. Some Fireflies back in the previous zone she lived let her know that the Fireflies had a base there. They owned a boat, hidden somewhere around the university. They would smuggle her into the zone. That was her way in.

It was easy. Just some more miles to walk and then they'd be safe.

She crossed the bridge and followed the road ahead. On her right was another marina. She was about to go past it when she heard shouts.

"Check the area for Fireflies."

"Shit!" Heather said. _Military_. The shouts were coming from the marina. There're looking for the Fireflies' hideout.

She couldn't continue on the road ahead, they would see her. She took a left and headed into the town. She needed to find a way to go past them and head to that road again. Heather was not gonna let them kill her only ride to the zone.

"I'm sorry baby" she said and took out that vial again. "Really can't risk it now." She made Alice drink it.

She continued jogging through the streets of the town. She stopped at the corner of a building listening. There was military in the town too.

_Fuck_ she thought. If they found her and scanned Alice…would the scanner show that she was infected? She needed to stay as far away as possible. She went behind some buildings and jogged through the backyards and the alleys between them for a while. She could hear infected inside some of them but that didn't bother her, they couldn't see her and even if they did she could deal with those. At some point she reached a dead end. The street was blocked. She turned right and found a construction building, half-built. She jogged towards it, her arms feeling tired from holding Alice.

Heather walked up the stairs ready to go through it. She saw the road she needed to go up ahead, when she heard a military truck driving on that road and stopping somewhere close to the building.

"Shit!" Heather said looking around. She ran into a room and opened the door, hiding behind it.

"You two, get up there set up a lookout" a soldier was ordering. "You head to this side of town and the rest follow me."

Heather heard the soldiers split up. Some walked past the room she was in, towards the town and some others headed up the building.

_A lookout_ she thought. If she got out on the road now they would see her from above. Not to mention that truck driving around was trouble.

She peeked through the door. She was gonna head up, follow them and take them out. She headed upstairs on the next floor. She could hear one of them heading up and the other somewhere on this floor. She couldn't hide Alice anywhere safe. She walked into a room and left her there.

"Stay here" she whispered taking out her knife. The room was empty but no lock on the door. Heather just closed the door walking out, and hid behind a wall listening to where the soldier was. She heard him and walked through a room getting behind him. She raised her knife and stabbed him in the neck putting her hand over his mouth. He fell down dead.

She went back to Alice and grabbed her heading upstairs. She could hear the soldier on the last floor.

"This is Delta-4-5-7, I'm in place over."

"This is Tango-0-3-1 roger and over."

She was setting up her rifle through a window ahead. Heather walked into a room on the right, left Alice there and sneaked behind the soldier. After a moment she was dead too. Heather looked out the window. There was only that one truck and it was heading the opposite way Heather needed to go. She took the soldiers rifle and her radio.

It was safe to move on. She could take the harbor walk and be at the university in no time. She suddenly had an idea. She took the soldier's radio and said.

"This is Delta-4-5-7, detecting possible Fireflies at the marina over."

"This is Tango-0-3-1 roger, we'll head in, check it out over."

"Roger and out" Heather said.

_Holy shit, it worked_ she thought. Now their attention would be on that marina and she could keep going more safely. She went back, grabbed Alice and headed down the stairs. She was on the first floor when she had another idea. She walked towards that dead soldier in the room. She looked at him, put Alice down and searched him. She found it. The scanner. She looked at Alice for a moment and then went behind her scanning her neck.

_Clean_. She was…clean, the scanner read.

Heather definitely couldn't explain this. Did Alice create antibodies? Or the infection just…left her?

Whatever the case, Heather picked Alice again happier than before and ran down and out on the road, heading to the harbor walk.

...

She could see the university ahead. They were finally there. This place was destroyed too. The Fireflies had to be around here somewhere though. If the military is looking for them, then they're here.

BAM!

She heard a shot up ahead. Then more followed.

"This is Romeo-5-5-8 requesting back up at the U Mass, taking fire."

"This is Tango-0-3-1 roger, what's the situation over."

"Found the Fireflies over"

"Roger, headed your way, over and out."

"Fuck!" Heather said looking at the radio on her belt. She ran towards the destroyed university. She could hear shots somewhere west of it.

_What am I gonna do?_ she thought. She had to try and help the Fireflies otherwise she wouldn't have a way to the zone. She was about to go through the campus when someone shouted to her.

"Stop!"

Heather turned around. It was a Firefly pointing a gun at her.

"Don't shoot, I'm not with them" she said hastily.

"Who are you?" the Firefly asked.

"I'm a friend" Heather said. "I was looking for you."

"How do I know that" he asked.

"Do I look like I'm with them?" she asked. She looked at the radio on her belt. "I stole that from them and…that" she looked at the rifle hanging on her shoulder.

They heard more shots somewhere close.

"Shit get inside!" the Firefly said gesturing her towards the university. They ran through a door, through a corridor and into an office.

"Listen I need to get to the zone" she started saying urgently "I was told I could find you here and that you could help. I help you out with the military will you get me there?"

The Firefly looked at her and then at Alice. After a moment he said. "Alright you know how to use that?" he looked at the rifle.

"Yeah" said Heather. "But she needs to be somewhere safe. Where's your boat?"

"How do you-"

"Where is it?" Heather interrupted him.

He looked at her skeptical and said after a moment "Follow me."

She followed the Firefly out of the university and ran towards the cliffs where the parking lot was.

"Hey come with me" the Firefly shouted to another Firefly on their way.

"Who's she?" he asked joining them.

The Firefly turned to her. "Who are you?"

"I'm Heather just a…an old friend."

"Old friend?"

"I used to live with you at your hospital base." she explained.

"Huh, so you're one of us…" the Firefly said

"Sort of"

They reached the cliffs. Half of them were torn apart. They jogged towards a part that was covered with a zinc.

"The boat is on the water, beneath the zinc" the Firefly said to Heather. "Andrew get with the little girl on the boat and stay until we come."

"What about helping-"

"You are. Heather will help us with the military and then we smuggle her in the zone."

Heather didn't want to leave Alice with anyone but she trusted the Fireflies.

"You protect her" she warned Andrew handing him Alice.

"Don't worry" he said.

Heather ran with the other Firefly towards the university.

"We use the building as a base" he said. "We get in and you find a place to set up that rifle of yours."

"You don't have to worry about me, I got this" she said.

They walked in.

"The military is inside!" a Firefly shouted from somewhere far.

"I'll head up" Heather said "Find a good vantage point."

"Okay" the Firefly told her. "Good luck."

Heather ran up the stairs to the top floor.

"Shit" she said when she saw the corridor blown apart. She approached it. The hole went all the way down through the lower corridors too. She couldn't see the bottom, it was too dark.

The roof above was blown apart too.

_What the hell happened here?_ she thought and she backed up running through a classroom on the right. She ran through it and walked out on the corridor, past the hole, moving forward. She found a good spot up ahead and crouched grabbing her rifle. She looked through the scope.

Heather saw a lot of soldiers heading towards the building. She locked onto one. _Time for them to taste their own medicine._

BAM! she shot him in the head. They couldn't shoot her up here. She was gonna take them all out in no time.

BAM! BAM! The military dropped like flies. After some time she saw Fireflies getting out of the university through one of its exits and heading through the campus to another building. She looked around to find more soldiers to shoot. She shot a couple and then looked at the road ahead and she saw that truck from before, coming closer to the university with probably ten soldiers in it.

Heather exhaled aiming at the driver. She held there steady for a few seconds and then shot him. She killed him making him jerk the wheel towards a building. Some of the soldiers managed to jump out, others crashed with the truck.

"That's enough!" she heard from behind her.

Suddenly someone grabbed her from the throat from behind, raising her and choking her. She moved her hands towards the soldier's face scratching him, making him drop her. She choked trying to get the rifle but he reached for her again and punched her on the face. He kept throwing punches hitting her. Heather was howling in pain but reached for her gun in her holster and pointed it towards him, shooting blindly. The soldier backed up holding his shoulder. Heather was bleeding from the face and couldn't move from the pain all over her body but she managed with all her strength to get up. She pointed the gun again towards the soldier but he kicked her hand before she could raise it. He grabbed her from her jacket hitting her in the face with his head and dragged her across the floor.

Heather was breathing hard, trying to push him away but she didn't have much strength. The soldier stopped over the hole in the corridor, grabbing her from the hair, making her look down.

_Oh god no_ she thought. _Alice…_

"Have a nice flight bitch" he said and pushed her in.

Heather felt herself falling through all the floors and in a couple of seconds she hit with her back hard, onto the surface of water.

She could feel her whole body hurting but made herself swim up from the deep water. She emerged, choking trying to catch her breath. She swam towards a desk and held onto it breathing, panicked. She was alive, because of the water. She needed to find a way up. She climbed onto the desk and sat on it for a minute. She looked around turning her flashlight on. It was an underground engineering classroom. There was a car somewhere floating in the water, equipment all around, machinery. She saw a door on the right. She got into the water swimming towards the door. She ducked under it and found herself in a corridor. She swam through it too but at some point it was blocked. She turned through another classroom and walked up some stairs out of the water. Here was dry. She was freezing but walked slowly towards the doors that connected the classrooms. She reached one and saw some Clickers inside.

The Fireflies probably never cleared this area.

"Alright" she breathed taking out her knife and axe. She walked into the room slowly. She saw a Stalker ahead and turned off her flashlight.

_Damn it._ She was gonna have to be very careful. She hid behind some tables and slowly walked towards the next classroom.

The sounds of the breathing the infected made, were horrible and frightening. She could feel cold fear on her spine and her drenched jacket didn't help either.

She took a bottle from one of the tables and threw it to the door she just walked through.

The infected heard it and walked to the noise. Heather took the chance and walked into the next classroom. It was too dark and she almost couldn't see a thing. She could hear infected though. This place had many. She should just find the corridor and follow it upstairs. That had to be the way out. She kept going slowly behind some equipment until she reached the door that led to the corridor.

_Spores._

She took out her oxygen mask and wore it jumping into the freezing water. She swam again following it turning on her flashlight.

"Exit" she read ahead on a sign. She swam a bit more, following the exits signs until there was no more water. She turned the corner and saw a Bloater ahead walking through it. It was so big it took more than half of the corridor. But the exit was right ahead, Heather could see the door and the stairs. She turned left into a classroom hoping to get around the Bloater, when a Stalker jumped her.

"Agh, shit!" she said holding it away. It was trying to bite her. She dodged it stabbing it in the head. The rest of the infected saw them though. She heard the Bloater growl loudly in the corridor and she took out her gun running. There was no other choice now, she had to ran through the classrooms. There were so many infected. She shot them trying to get them out of her way. She could hear the Bloater somewhere further behind her. She just had to get out to the corridor. She turned right to it when a Clicker jumped her from in front and they fell on the floor together.

She was trying to push it away when more infected showed up. She shot the Clicker when two other infected jumped at her.

She felt a terrible pain on her stomach and shot one of them rolling on the floor away from the other. She was on her back when she shot the other one too. She could hear more coming her way. The exit was a door away and she ran to it holding her side, frightened. She reached it and went through the small crack. It was blocked from the other side but she squeezed through. Once she was out, she pushed the cabinets to the door and removed her mask, walking backwards into the wall, sobbing.

She raised her jacket over her stomach with her trembling hands.

She was bit.

Heather let out a choked cry, her whole body shaking. She stood there for a minute trying to control herself, but that inevitable feeling was sinking in. But she had no time for it. She let the jacket fall over the bite and with a lot of effort walked mindlessly up the stairs. She felt cold, really cold and that had nothing to do with her being wet. She got out the door into the garden of the university. There was no more shooting.

_Alice_ she thought and started running to where the boat was.

She reached it in a couple of minutes. There were some Fireflies there.

"Hey you made it!" one of them said.

"Is she okay?" Heather asked urgently.

"She's fine." he answered. "We did it" he said. "They're dead."

Heather didn't care.

"Can I have my ride now?" she asked breathing fast.

"Sure" he said. "We have to get out of the area anyway, now that the military found us."

She jumped into the boat with some Fireflies and went over to Alice hugging her.

"I need you to take me to Marlene" Heather said.

"Now listen we-"

"No you listen" she said harshly. "You take me to her, she's expecting me."

The Firefly looked at her for a moment and shook his head.

"And how do we know that?"

"You can shoot me if she's not" Heather replied. Marlene wasn't really expecting her, but she knew she'd be alright.

He was reading her face. "Alright let's go."

"How far till we get there?" Heather asked as the Fireflies started the engine of the boat.

"It's gonna take a couple of hours."

Heather closed her eyes. She hoped they reached in time. She was running out of it.

...

She wasn't feeling well. She could feel that she had a fever but her hands were too cold. No blood circulation. Fear was keeping it away. She could feel an itching sensation too, where the bite was. Her whole body was just feeling strange. Like it was fighting something from the inside.

"Stay here" a Firefly said turning to look at her. "I'll notify Marlene" he said turning around.

"Tell her…" Heather started "Tell her it's Anna."

"Anna?" he asked.

"Yeah."

He walked away and after a minute he came back with Marlene looking surprised.

Marlene saw her and rushed to her shaking her head, smiling. She reached her and hugged her.

She backed away after a few moments looking at her.

"It's been so long" she said.

"Yeah" Anna replied trying to look and sound as much normal as possible.

"I don't believe it" she said smiling more.

Marlene turned to look at Alice. "How 'bout we give you both something to eat?" she said.

"She needs to sleep" Anna told her. "Is there a bed you can spare me?"

"Sure follow me" Marlene told her. "I'm gonna need you to head out in a few hours" she added to some Fireflies. "Get rest for now."

Anna followed Marlene upstairs into an empty bedroom.

"You can have the room" she said.

Anna didn't answer. She laid Alice on the bed.

"Honey you can sleep here, it's safe" Anna told Alice. She was already half asleep, she didn't need convincing. It was night and already her bedtime. Anna covered her with a blanket and got up.

"We need to talk" Anna told Marlene seriously. "Alone."

"Okay" Marlene said looking curiously at Anna and closed the door of the room.

Anna sat down on a chair and put her head in her hands, hiding her face, hiding the truth.

"What happened Anna?" Marlene asked her. "I thought you were staying up on that village."

"It…it didn't last" she said with a hurt voice. "I had to live in a zone for more than a year. That didn't last too" she added in a small voice. "How's Eric?" she added after a moment.

"He's fine. He's out on business." Marlene replied looking at Anna with concern.

Anna nodded. She could feel the bite burning up.

"Anna, about-" Marlene started slowly.

"Don't" Anna interrupted her hurtfully. She knew Marlene was gonna say sorry for Elizabeth. She didn't want to hear it.

Marlene didn't say anything else. She glanced at Alice instead and asked. "How old is she?"

"She's three" Anna said not looking up.

"She's beautiful, just like her mother" said Marlene leaning on the wall, looking at Anna.

Anna turned to look at Marlene, her eyes asking something like _how did you figure?_

"You have the exact same eyes" she explained smiling.

Anna bowed her head, feeling more hurt than before. The thought that she wasn't gonna be there for Alice anymore was painful. After a moment she reached for her backpack and took out her ID. "This has come in useful" she said giving it to Marlene. "Heather had a child registered on it."

"Oh I remember this one" Marlene said taking the ID.

Marlene I-I need to tell you-" Anna started her voice cracking up a bit.

Marlene looked at her worried. "What is wrong Anna? What happe-"

Anna got up and raised her jacket, revealing the bite to Marlene. It was a lot worse. The cordyceps spread around the bite.

"Oh" Marlene said shocked looking at it.

"Before you say or do anything" Anna said, her eyes wet. "I'm gonna leave. Right after we finish talking."

Marlene looked at her holding back tears. She shook her head not believing. "No…"

"Marlene you have always been there for me" Anna said with tears starting to fall down. "But I only need one last thing." she said turning to look at Alice. "I need to know…I need to know she'll be safe…"

Marlene looked at Alice. "She will…I'll take care of her" she said hurtfully.

"You promise?" Anna said.

"I promise" Marlene replied quietly.

They just stood there for a minute not talking. Marlene was about to take a step towards Anna when she spoke.

"I need some time with her" she said looking at Alice. "Alone."

Marlene nodded wiping tears from her cheek. "I'll be waiting for you. Last door in the corridor" she said and walked out of the room.

Anna, trying to control herself, pushing tears back, sat down on the chair taking a piece of paper and a pen from the desk. She started writing something. After a while she got up and sat on the edge of the bed.

"Marlene will take care of you." she told Alice tearfully. "I tried…" she sobbed. She lowered her head and kissed Alice on the forehead. "I love you" she whispered and got up, walking to the door. She wanted to turn back to Alice, stay with her for a while more but instead she made herself open the door and go out. She walked, more like dragged her feet, to the last door. She opened it. Marlene was staring out of the window.

Anna closed the door and walked to her handling her the piece of paper.

"Read it" she said to Marlene in a small voice.

Marlene took it and started reading it. After a minute she looked up.

"Why are you lying to her?" she asked.

"Promise me" Anna said. "Promise me that this is how she will remember me"

"But this is not-"

"Promise me" Anna insisted. "That she will never find out I got bitten."

Marlene looked at her for a few moments but agreed. "Okay."

Anna bowed her head. "Give it to her when she's ready."

"I will" Marlene said. "Anna I…I'm so sorry" she said quietly.

Anna didn't answer. She couldn't. She said instead "I'll go outside with your men once they're ready…help them…"

Marlene looked out of the window shaking her head. "I'll send them now"

It was time…Anna couldn't say goodbye so she just turned around to leave.

"Anna" Marlene called to her. Anna turned around.

Marlene picked up the ID Anna gave her and said "The little girl's name registered on it, the one you used…it's not the same as on your letter."

No it wasn't. Because Alice was the name written on the ID. But her daughter wasn't Alice. That's not the name she gave her when she gave birth to her. And she didn't have to be Alice. Alice was a dead person. A ghost. Her daughter was still here and alive. All these years of lying, being Emily so she could forget her past, being Heather so she could survive the present, she felt her daughter didn't have to be a lie too, didn't have to be someone else anymore.

"Ellie…she's Ellie."

"Ellie…" Marlene repeated. "She will be fine" Marlene reassured her.

Anna's tears gave in as she said quietly "I know" and turned towards the door, getting out.


End file.
